


Overthrown

by MommaBirb



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Character Death, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Good Parent Professor Membrane, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-10-14 07:06:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20596721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MommaBirb/pseuds/MommaBirb
Summary: The world had slipped back into the normal day-to-day monotony after the events of the Florpus Hole, all seemingly quiet until a new substitute teacher arrives. With them comes the winds of change, not only for earth but possibly the entire universe.





	1. Fake Smile

Sometimes an event happens so amazing, so incredibly life changing that one would think it'd never be forgotten and instead used to better prepare for the future so whatever happened could be replicated or prevented for the betterment of all. But sometimes that isn’t the case, sometimes the event is so mind boggling that there is a global shutdown of people’s mental capacity and in order for them to cope with everything that had happened they simply…forget. Or pretend it never happened at least. 

That was the case currently. Not a month ago there was a worldwide panic as the planet was literally teleported across galaxies and almost obliterated by a dimensional space phenomena known as a “Florpus Hole". You’d think after something like that happening there’d be a wide scale realization of other worldly beings that were capable of seriously messing with the balance of Earth's creatures and even maybe destroying every single one of them at the slick of their spindly little antennae. But no! Everyone seems to chalk it up as some widespread fever dream induced by…well there’s been a few theories: mass hypnotism, a strange strain of fungus that somehow sent spores to every single person on the planet, something in the water…the theories were endless and all damage from the teleportation and being mere seconds away from being ripped apart in the florpus hole was just coincidental earthquakes or something of the sort. None of these explanations were what really happened. No one seemed to care to see the truth for what it was or even cared that the earth was just almost destroyed. No one. 

But one person. One person who knows the truth of what happened.

A certain big headed child hell bent on exposing the existence of those beings hiding behind the stars. This child was very clever when given the chance, but also a bit of a loveable and goofy dimwit. It doesn’t help that his field of expertise in the paranormal has him pinned as a bit of…psychotic type to most people who deem him delusional whenever he brings up anything of the supernatural sort, and often that was all he ever talked about. He wasn’t taken seriously. Never really had been, and he grew used to it and found solace that it was his sole duty to be the protector of earth from any little green man that tried to make their way on his home’s soil. So he could take the verbal hits (sometimes physical when it came to school bullies) only because he knew without him everyone would be too blind to see themselves being forced into galactic slavery or just destroyed by whatever was out there. 

This boy had a name.

Dib Membrane. He was twelve years old and despite the long and arduous events that took place not too long ago, he was pretty content with how everything fell back into routine. Well sort of.

Shortly after earth was back to where it needed to belong and no army of aliens came flooding to take over the world, it got pretty quiet. His enemy, the one who started the impending doom of the human race, was an alien determined to prepare the earth for the coming invasion of his leaders, The Tallest, but had gotten into an dark funk after finding they hadn’t made plans to come to the planet at all. Deeming it a simple issue of needing to get back in their good graces, as well as their flight path, all he had to do was trick Dib into helping him concoct the most diabolical plan he had executed yet. And it had almost worked! Dib thanks every day he wakes up to find the world still how it should be. Not destroyed.

But as said before the activity of this little invader had decreased exponentially . The same thing happened just before all of hell was let loose, and it had resulted in chair Dib. That wasn’t going to happen this time. Not on his watch! But he was still making sure to keep close tabs on his nemesis at all times. Luckily his dad, Professor Membrane, was able to be convinced to create a wrist watch for Dib that projected all video feed concerning Zim (The alien invader) so he could keep mobile and not turn back into a gross and smelly chair boy one again. There of course was the question of whether this was something Zim had consent to or not but all Dib had to do was somehow throw together an excuse on how this tied in with “real" science and presto! A neat video watch. Dib was very pleased.

Despite the inactivity of Zim, the Irk still came to class. Though he was a lot more reserved and a little out of focus. He sat there and he’d raise his hand at times and asked Ms. Bitters on ways the humans could be dominated but it wasn’t nearly as much as it had been and he didn’t seem to bother screeching defensively when Dib would declare him an Alien in front of his classmates with newfound “proof", he just sat there. Thinking. Lost.

It was almost sad. Almost. Not really.

Dib enjoyed the somewhat peaceful nature his life took up. To a point he believed he had fully won against Zim and all the terribly disguised alien was just stuck in a cycle, his most elaborate scheme had failed! He put his all into finally putting the end to mankind and all of earth, he was ready to throw his own life away if it meant pleasing his Tallest. But it had failed. What more could Zim even do to even come as close as he was?

So Dib was able to relax a bit. To finally take a breather from tirelessly dedicating his life to thwarting Zim's every plan of world domination since it didn’t appear that he had any spark left in those large inhuman eyes. The determination was starting to die away. Rotting and withering and soon that little fire would be snuffed out like it had almost been sometime ago and Zim would cocoon himself in a ball of nacho cheese and Dib will be there. More cautious this time. He wouldn’t be tricked twice.

Dib decided everything was going to fall into place for him. He had to fight back a gleeful snicker at the thought if finally proving that there are aliens out there and whatever had happened before wasn’t a mass bout of mushroom induced hysteria but an actual extraterrestrial attempt of annihilation! How exciting. Nothing could get in the way of this short trek to victory. Dib believed this with all of his heart. That is…

Until YOU arrived.

The day had started normal; breakfast with his family (which now included a very fishy looking clone of his father who was determined to use pudding for anything and everything), coupled with a few death glares and sharp remarks from his sister, Gaz, then a quick look at the video feeds to make sure Zim wasn’t up to anything suspicious before running along to School. Yep. Everything was playing out to be another quiet day! It was all rather pleasing.

That didn’t last long however. 

The first indication that something was off was the absence of the teacher, Ms. Bitters, who had a perfect track record for being on time and ready to tear apart the dreams of her students. The second indicator was the note written on the board instructing the students to quietly read a section of their textbooks for the first half of class; this just resulted in talk of where Ms. Bitters could be and other general gossip, no student really picked up their textbooks. 

On cue, halfway through the class, the door began to open and everyone expected to see their usual gloomy teacher, who maybe was just in a conference with parents letting them know that their child was just a lost cause who’d amount to nothing, instead came a new face peeking into the room, an adult, who looked around the room before catching the stares of the kids in the classroom, returning those stares with a wide smile before finally fully emerging into class and shutting the door.

You were new. Instantly that made red flags in Dib's head go up.

You stood in front of Ms. Bitters' desk and clapped your hands together in from of yourself and kept smiling wide and sweetly. It looked…really fake. At least it did to Dib who was squinting really hard at you.

“Hello! So wonderful to meet all of you! I’ll be your new substitute teacher while Ms. Bitters is away in vacation for a…indefinite amount of time! But don’t worry, she’ll be back at some point, but until then I hope we can all get together well until her return,” while you were saying all of this to the class, you had spun around and wrote out your name on the chalkboard in large, bubbly letters and then turning around once again. “Are there any questions?”

There had barely been a second that passed. No one was given the chance to raise their hand. “No questions? That’s alright, we all have plenty of time to get to know each other. Now…let’s get into the lesson plan…” You mumbled while glancing over at Zim, who all but was ignoring the whole situation, taking more interest in balancing a pencil on his finger. Your gaze lingered on him for a moment and Dib caught a flash of something going across your face, he couldn’t quite place what it was, before there was a smile there once again on your face while you spoke about having the rest of class to finish up the chapter in the textbooks as started before you came in.

Dib had a gut feeling he needed to keep an eye on you.

The rest of the day went without much more talking from you, instead you were looking through a few folders that were Ms. Bitters' lesson plans, and Dib could tell by the way you’d raise your brow or sometimes scoff while turning over a page that you didn’t really like what you were reading. Most of the time Ms. Bitters would sit at her desk and tell the class how they were all going to spiral into a worthless pit of worthlessness because every single one of them lacked the simple basic requirements to be a functioning member of society, peppered with a few repetitive phrases of “you’re all doomed…doomed…” over and over again until everyone was ready to claw their ear drums out. Someone did, once, they looked truly happy with themselves. Happier than any student Dib had ever seen in class before, the girl smiled blissfully despite the trickles of blood down her neck, all that mattered was the silence. There was rumor she had found nirvana soon after and no one had seen her since.

Mostly everyone had finally taken up to starting their assignments. All except for Dib and Zim. Zim looked as though he could care less about everything going on and took to now balancing the pencil on his upper lip while leaning back in desk chair, looking up at the grimy, old ceiling tiles while keeping his feet propped onto of his book. Dib however just had the book sitting open on his desk propped up so he could hide his face behind it and pretend he was working while he was actually peeking out from behind it to keep his ever watchful eyes on you. There was something not sitting right on him since you walked into the room. Sure you looked like a pretty normal human, but there was a certain…familiar edge to you that he couldn’t quite place where he had seen before. There was a couple times you had looked up and caught his stare, but he ducked down pretty quick and was sure you didn’t actually catch his spying. He was very experienced in spying.

So he thought anyways.

When the bell rang for class to be over and all the kids got up to scramble out of the school building you had stood up from your desk and spoke: “Dib and Zim, I’d like for you two to hang back for a minute, just a moment of your time.” Some of the kids stopped their escapes of the class room to snicker and point at the two and going “Oooo, you’re in trouble~” before taking back up their task of getting the heck out of there.

Zim had visibly sunk and he hissed something under his breath, but he didn’t scream or try to fight, instead he just lazily slid out of his chair and towards the teacher’s desk where you gave him a small smile before you looked up at Dib who was also now standing by Zim. He was very suspicious about this.

“Look. I get it, new sub means kids can be a bit more…lackadaisical! But even though I’m only here temporarily, if I give out an assignment I would very much like it if you’d give a bit more energy in completing it,” You paused, still smiling. “Try not to have too much fun with pencils and use them instead, Zim. And Dib…maybe keep your eyes on your work and not on me? I’m not that weird looking, am I?” You gave a small laugh, laying a hand on your cheek. 

Dibs own cheeks burned. He thought he was doing well at not getting caught. Maybe he was a little rusty with how docile Zim had been lately. Dib just gave a quick nod, looking at the floor. He was still suspicious of you, it gave him goosebumps when you just kept smiling at the two of them.

Zim said nothing. He was doing that a lot lately. Keeping quiet. Very un-Zimlike.

“Great! Good talk, now you all run along, I’ll see you here tomorrow with more gusto towards learning! Remember, I’m here to teach, but doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.” And with that you waved them off. Dib could feel your eyes follow after them as they walked out the room. He could still feel that smile of yours even after closing the door.

Oh there was definitely something wrong going on around here.

And Zim had to be the cause.

“So what is it now, Space Boy? Have one of your robots pose as a teacher to take over our learning system? To teach us how to be a proper slave for the when we’re taken over by the rest of your kind? That’s pretty tame compared to what you’ve done before!” He stepped in front of Zim, glaring at him while keeping himself in a defensive stance just in case the Invader was ready to attack when he found out Dib was in on his plan.

Zim simply stuck out his tongue and flicked it towards Dib, looking as uninterested as ever. “Zim has no time for your accusations,” was all he said before he skirted around Dib and kept walking down the hall, his steps not as purposeful and military-like as they used to be. 

Dib watched him leave, took a second to consider stopping him again and press harder, but he then got the feeling that maybe Zim really didn’t have any idea about their new sub. He wouldn’t completely toss off the table that he had something planned, but he’d consider the possibility that whatever weirdness you brought with you were all brought in by you.

Or he could be overthinking the whole thing. It wouldn't be new.

Like he did when there was a substitute ham in class…that was an awful day. Nevertheless. He’d be vigilant and would definitely need to install some cameras into the classroom first chance he got so he could keep an eye on you.

His mind was racing on his way home, sometimes stopping to think about that creepy smile you kept giving to him...and that look you gave Zim. You had looked very serious, almost like you had something important going through your had while you looked at him. 

He supposed it was about time something new and big was going to happen, and even though he wished he could have a bit more peace and quiet after the world as he knew it was close to being torn apart and everyone with it...he felt a little excited. Dib definitely sought after adventure, anything that could lead to the exposure of alien life or any sort of supernatural existence to all his critics gave fired him up.

When he got home he grabbed his plate off the dinner table and started to his room, much to his father's disapproval, but he didn't have time for a sit down family meal. He had more important things! Possibly having to protect the world once again sort of things!

There would be no more family dinners if he doesn't keep vigilant. A moment wasted is another moment closer to possible doom.

He looked at a layout of the school, deciding where to put the cameras. He needed to start with observation, figure out what you were planning before he could decide how to act. But he'd be ready. 

He always was.


	2. Cameras, cameras and more cameras!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More of an introductory of the reader! Feeling rather inspired to write.

Dib was actually rather inventive when he wanted to be, after all he was the son of a world famous scientist, and even though he didn’t quote follow in his father’s footsteps he could still appreciate what science has done for the growth of mankind throughout known history and understand pretty complex stuff, but it just wasn’t his passion like his Dad wished it was. But it was handy, it helped him fix an alien space ship after all! Well it did take quite some time but hey, cut him some slack! It was alien tech he had never seem before and he was pretty sure he was the first human to touch anything like it. He was pretty proud of his accomplishment with it. Sadly it was laying is disrepair once again in the shed, but each day he’s able to fix it up bit by bit and hopefully it’ll be back to full functioning order once again. Maybe he could even reprogram it more so it’d have less of a hostile nature towards him, he tried many times but he just couldn’t dampen down the sass the ship kept throwing at him, it was pretty annoying.

But the ship isn’t what’s important right now. What was important was the new modified cameras he had spent all night making. Much like the design for the cameras scattered all around Zim's property these babies would connect to a feed linked to his watch, letting him do recon at just a flick of his finger, but he decided it needed a little upgrading. Sure some were meant to keep posted and stationary (those would be the ones left throughout the school), but there were a special few he deemed his “Diblings". They were mobile. Each were equipped with spider-like legs (he wouldn’t admit he got the inspiration from Zim's PAK legs) and also atop the body was a familiar looking cowlick that looked much like his, but this little feature wasn’t just as a nod to the creator, but it functioned as a type of propeller as well, allowing it to fly pretty soundlessly. He was rather pleased with them. 

With these babies he’d be able to follow around the new substitute without having to get into harm’s way! You were new and he’s dealt with Zim enough to know to never underestimate a possibly new opponent, so rather than having to follow you around and risk being spotted and possibly captured or worse. You may not even be a threat, but he’d rather be safe than sorry.

He figured his new little creations would help him find out where you went, what you were up to after school hours. Though, Dib decided, it probably wasn’t the best time to deploy them yet. You seemed sort of suspicious of him already…maybe? That smile looked pretty unnerving. It was probably he keep a low profile, act like a good little student long enough to have your guard towards him lower just enough for him to send out his cameras, both the mobile and stationary ones will be kept at the ready for the right time.

Alright the first part of his plan was complete. Lay low and observe. He’ll go from there as he discovers more about you if there’s anything to discover. He really Hope’s there is, otherwise he’d feel pretty creepy posting up a bunch of cameras to spy on this substitute teacher all based on a paranoid hunch. But he’d like to think he had keen intuition.

A quick check on the Zim cams (Zams he'd sometimes call them) to make sure everything was ship shape there. Even though he had a newer mission he couldn’t slack when it came to Zim, the little bug could scurry out of his funk at any moment and try another crazy plan at any given moment. He spent so long in that toilet. Waiting. His dedication was something else, Dib could commend him for that at least. The rest of him was just garbage.

After making sure everything was deemed normal, Dib slipped out of his chair and took a glance at himself in the mirror; his clothes were a little wrinkled from him being hunched over his little Diblings all night, and he could definitely tell he’d need to shower soon. His nose scrunched up when he thought back to how putrid he smelt when he holed himself up in his room. His dad had to take out the carpet and his bed out to be replaced because no matter how much they scrubbed or washed away the smell would remain. He didn’t realize how bad he had gotten. Right now his slightly unkempt self was a vast improvement and Dib was ready for School.

He was ready for whatever you had to throw at him.

Well he thought he was.

Turns out you had decided to give the class a large load of homework: A very long paper was due about the history of ancient civilizations and their impact on modern day society which also required a diorama of the chosen civilization that would be used for a presentation as well thick packet of worksheets that were meant to be filled and turned in for a grade by the end of the week. Plus you tacked on a cutesy little “And a small report on you! So I can learn more about each one of you to make teaching more fun~” so far there was no fun to be had.

Sure you were actually teaching! Like a Teacher was supposed to, but come on…everyone knows subs were supposed to be a small reprieve from the day-to-day academic hellfire. This was too much. Other students voiced their complaints to you, audibly groaning and slamming their heads on their desk, you just smiled that smile of yours. Dib noticed one corner of your smile twitch ever so slightly before it quickly fixed itself.

“I know, I know I’m asking a lot of you, but this is how I can gauge what each student is capable of on their own and decide the best teaching methods I can use for each one of you! Learning is different for each one of you…precious little children, I have to do my best for you to make sure you have a bright future.” You gave a sympathetic look and brought a hand up to cup your cheek, tilting your head to the side and looking rather guilt ridden. A dramatic sigh of woe. “But I understand, I like to think I’m pretty reasonable…” The kids ears perked in hope that you’d drop the workload, realizing how silly it was to give them all that to complete in a week. “I can extend the presentation project paper until…next week. Everything else is due at the end of this week as stated. So just the packet and personal paper about yourself. I’d say that’s pretty fair.”

A collective groan.

Dib made sure to keep quiet, nodding here and there and making sure to make it obvious about how much attention he’s paying to you. Keeping notes on everything as you sweep everyone’s look of dread under the rug to continue the lesson. 

Dib decided to steal a quick glance at Zim. He always does, he's got to keep an eye on him. No one else will after all.

He didn’t seem as out of it today. He was actually sitting up straight and looking forward at the board where you wrote what was meant to be taken note, though he didn’t write anything down (Dib did, he made sure to be meticulous about it). Dib could tell he wasn’t completely interested in what you were saying but he still kept his eye on you. Almost as if he was trying to figure you out. Interesting. He’ll keep an eye on that as well.

Whenever you asked a question Dib made sure he was the first to shoot his hand up, even if he didn’t know the answer, he wanted to be the sure that you saw him paying attention in class, like what you said to him yesterday stuck. He made it a point not to stare at you for long, focusing on the chalk board instead and only taking glances at you when you spoke. He could hear Zim holding back a mocking snicker to the side of him.

Well screw Zim, he wasn’t going to mess this up. Dib was even making sure he wasn’t going to try and cause any scenes at school about his usual paranormal banter. This was only the first day of his plan after all, he has to keep it cool.

It felt like forever before the day had finally ended. Even lunch period had drug in incredibly slow. Just before Dib got out of his seat to start his way home you stopped him and Zim again, this time with a softer looking smile. Not as sharp like sugar glass. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick. Just wanted to say I’m happy to see that you all are taking class a little more seriously than you did today! Very proud, keep up the good work…and to show my appreciation you each get one of…these!” You produced two gold star stickers seemingly out of no where and quickly plastered them on both of their foreheads. Both Zim and Dib had the same look of distaste. “My little star students for the day! Now run along, go home and start on your assignments. Keep up the good work.” Just like yesterday, you shooed them out of the classroom, that same smile that followed Dib back on your face as they shut the door and left.

As soon as those two were gone…your smile fell. Your rubbed your cheeks and grumbled about the soreness while you opened a desk drawer and reached in, pulling out a small screen, almost looked like a common smartphone, but once on the screen morphed into a split video. 

You were pretty good at spying. 

Those little stickers had small camera implants on the adhesive side, nothing that would cause harm, maybe irritate the skin when the sticker was peeled away but the camera was left underneath the skin, just enough to grab hold and not be scraped away. Only drawback is that you saw what the subject saw rather than the subject themselves, but that’s okay it still served its purpose. On the screen you could see both Dib and Zim walking down the sidewalk, both stealing glances at each other, each one with a scowl on their face. How cute. Enemies. 

You pocketed your device and looked around to make sure no one was looking before tapping the heel of your right foot against the ground twice, a moment later you were surrounded by a bright beam if light then gone just like that. When you reappeared you were no longer in a classroom, rather in a small underground bunker that was tucked away in an old soda factory it looks like. Your base of operations.

You clicked your heels together three times, standing straight as your human appearance disappeared, revealing green skin and large bug-like eyes. The two thin antennae atop your head twitched after being kept tucked away all day. Finally able to get a little more comfortable. 

An Irken.

You strolled over to a modest work bench, sitting down while looking at a few notes you had kept for yourself, you were rather forgetful and needed to make sure you kept all important details jotted down and stowed away for later review. You had only arrived several Earth days ago, so your space had yet to be filled with all your equipment, you didn’t have much just enough for a small lab. 

You weren't left with much.

The small hiss of anger that slipped was punctuated with am agitated flick of an antenna. Deep breath. What’s done is done.

What is still able to happen is what you need to be focusing on.

A soft whirring noise filled the small space, just the size of dorm room, as your PAK produced a screen in front of you, when the screen turned on you softly clicked and chittered as it blinked to life, giving you a glimpse of a recorded video message. 

The screen was fuzzy a mix of mostly reds and hint of purple, nothing visible…but just a second of patience and…yes there. The feed clears up and shows two wilding flailing figures going back and forth screaming in pure horror. At first it just looks like a puppet show, but if you knew what you were looking for you’d be able to see there was more to this puppet show than meets the eye. Those two idiotic looking puppets on the screen were no other than the mighty rulers of an equally mighty race. The Tallest, leaders of all Irkens. Also the two most pathetic creatures that have ever been given the title of Tallest.

The screen cuts to static

Now. Again. No one would really understand what this video was about at first glance, but you did. At first you didn’t, it had come over your feed while you watched an old film made by a planet of beings long taken over by the Irkens. It was a good watch. You were about to cut off the feed when you saw the puppets and then looked to the coordinates. Not too long ago a broadcast was sent out about a dangerous florpus hole that had opened up some systems away from where you were, a simple warning to any lifeforms near the area. The coordinates of the florpus and the one of the video matched.

This had piqued your curiosity. And you were never one to leave your curious nature undated. So without much delay you had ventured out to where the phenomena had opened and sure enough there it was, large and in charge. It’d close on it’s own after some time, but before then anything caught in its path was sure to be wiped clean out of existence. 

And if the video was correct. That meant the Tallest had been the latest victims. 

Perfect.

This had got you into gear straight away, you looked into the video once more and found the second set of coordinates of where the video call was made. Somewhere pretty far off called…Ee-urth? Whatever it was called the planet had the same signature as some planetary rubble that was floating near the florpus. Now for a planet to be way out here and then suddenly not here? That may have explained how this hole came to be. 

But how that planet came to jump like that past galaxies to here and then back? Oh that just got that curious bug of yours biting at the back of your mind. So of course you set off on this long cruddy space ride to a equally cruddy planet to find some answers. And lo and behold! Cruddy life forms on this cruddy planet! A surprise for the ages. But that wasn’t what mattered, what did matter was the presence of another Irk on this little mud ball of a planet.

It didn’t take you long to find them and figure out who they were.

Oh, Zim. Such a beautiful idiot. 

You had heard about him. Heck used him as an example of how not to be an invader in the academy. Sent away to be a Food drone on some food court system then somehow got away in order to serve as an Invader for the Tallest. All rather sad. But admirable in a way. He must have been banished to this speck. You actually felt sorry for the little Irk.

You were quick to make yourself a space on this planet, choosing this abandoned shack because of how secluded it was from the rest if the populace and also had the perfect amount of space for a ship and labs. Again, it was easy enough to see where Zim was, and you found he goes to this study building called School where all earth worms go to have their minds filled with information they seem to have no interest in. Perfect spot to monitor. 

You just had to dispatch the instructor. You glanced over at a cryo chamber tucked away beside the ship, the old and withered woman was inside, safe and sound. You’d thaw her out when you no longer needed her position. 

There was a few things you needed to take care of first. Out came your small device showing the split video feed, you looked them over and decided to enlarge Dib’s feed. He appeared to be home now, sitting down at a table surrounded by a couple more humans, a robot and what looked like…an orange fish balloon? Whatever that was, you tried to ignore it’s stupid looks of affection it was giving everyone at the table. Dib was looking down at a plate of food, looked rather unappetizing for Irk standards, but oh well. 

Dib looked up.

Well hello. Who's this?

Across from him was sitting an adult human Male, his face hidden by a very high collar that only allowed a pair of goggles to be seen but that’s not even what drew your attention, what did was that crazy looking lock of hair sitting atop the man’s head. Looked very much like Dib' s but more...like a lightening bolt? How odd.

Something clicks. This man looks rather familiar.

You pull up a smaller hologram screen and type in a few words in a search engine and the same man pops up in a result. Professor Membrane. World renowned Scientist. Even though Earth’s technology wasn’t all that modern, that was an impressive title. That means Dib had connections and means for the best Earth can offer.

You watched for a while, the meal had finished and Dib looked like he was going up a flight of stairs towards what you guessed were his own quarters. There he immediately made a beeline for a desk and he had his own cameras he was looking at, all seemed to be aimed at Zim's base. Then his attention was drawn to a handful of small devices. More cameras. You caught sight of a couple sporting his hair. Weird. But cute. You had a hunch those were meant for you. Dib didn’t really hide the fact that he felt wary of you, he has good instincts it seems, not many on this planet seem to have it. 

Time passed and you kept watch as he looked over more cameras, you started growing bored, but you smiled as you turned off the device. You'll look into Zim more later.

This Dib. He seemed like a good kid, smart for his kind not to mention he already seems to know about who Zim really was (Zim did stick out pretty badly) and was the offspring of a top scientist who probably had quite collection of supplies and labs that you did not.

This kid could be useful.


	3. Handshake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting to get into the meat of the story. Just a nibble.

After a few days of pretending to be a substitute teacher as well as keeping a close eye on the two goofballs you had planted a bug on, you noticed the first camera Dib plants. Ah, cute kid. He wasn’t acting like a good student just to have you lower your guards so you wouldn’t notice the little device tucked away in the upper right corner of the room , pointed directly at you and your desk. It’s dark color had it blending in nicely against what appeared to be…mold? Wow. Gross. You didn’t say anything, you let him have his little victory, if it made him feel better than why not? Maybe it’ll make things easier for you later.

The day after there was another one, at the very back of the class where the lights hadn’t been changed for quite some time (cuts in the lightbulb fund, a student had told you) so it was hidden in the shadows, well it would have if it still didn’t have a little red light blinking to indicate it was on. A few more days passed and each day had a new camera somewhere, not all in the classroom, some were placed in the halls and even one in the teacher’s lounge. You had watched him on your own spy cam each time he shimmied through a vent or sneaking into the school after hours to place them just so you couldn’t see him. He really was too much. So in total there were about seven cameras posted in the school; two in the classroom, one in the teachers lounge, one in the cafeteria and then the other 3 in the halls. 

Luckily you were pretty careful, it wasn’t your first time being put under surveillance, so you weren’t too worried. Instead you acted as if you had no clue about the planted cameras and kept up with your teaching, making sure all your students focused on the project assignments you gave them the previous week. You could already tell most of them haven’t even started them at all, that’s fine, you didn’t really care one way or the other. It was just all for the image anyways. But you still had to act like you care.

“Alright, today we’ll just spend the class quietly working on the projects I assigned you all last week, feel free to ask me for any help if you need it.” You did your best to ignore the blatant displeasure all the students shown you as you said this, you had to keep calm and collected even in the face of these disrespectful children. So, instead, you sat down at your desk and pulled out a folder of a few more projects you could hand out after these, depending on how much time you had to spend on this planet (hopefully not too much longer if you’re able to get what you need), best to be prepared.

None of the kids came up to ask for any sort of help, you figured you made them feel uneasy, seeing as you were a teacher that actually acted like one and didn’t spend the time downing their existence everyday. That’s pretty fair. You didn’t want to be pestered anyways. There were more important things you needed to figure out. 

You paused and looked up at the only green “kid" in the room. Zim was just sitting there, like everyday, doing nothing but glaring at you. Everyday he just seemed to be observing you, giving you an feeling that maybe he had an inkling about who you actually were, or he could just be that oddly intense? You’ve never actually met Zim before, just heard about his failures in the academy training to be an invader. Even the Tallest would sometimes stream videos describing the latest stupid escapade the exile had reported to them. Most of the time you couldn’t make it out with all the snacks stuffed in their mouths and their stupid, wheezy laughs. 

You made sure to match Zim’s stare, though not openly hostile you gave him that big smile of yours, adding in a small wave as well. He scoffed and turned his nose (if he had one) up in disgust. You had to stifle a chuckle at his air of irritation that was directed towards you, you had no intention of riling him up, but it looks like it was going to happen one way or another. Oh well. 

Seems like you were rubbing everyone the wrong way, and you didn’t even have to do anything. A talent of yours. 

The rest of the day didn’t really stick with you (not like most of them did) nothing important had happened let alone interesting so you figured it pointless to even care about taking note of it. So when the bell rang loudly to dismiss all students from School, you felt a bit relieved to finally be let out of this stagnant hell. Really, there was nothing remotely stimulating being here. No wonder the instructors were so gloomy.

You could feel Dib staring at you while you gathered your folders and tucked them back in a drawer. You let him. Whatever made the kid feel better.

Once everyone left the room you got up as well and waited a few moments, taking up the task of picking up any stray paper wads that had been left on the desks or floor, straightening a chair or two to pass enough time for most of the student body and staff to leave the premises. Since the cameras stunted your teleporting trick you would have to walk. How tedious.

So off you went. There was a teacher who tried to stop you, a cheerful human Male who taught a younger group of kids, his smile was genuine and his bespectacled eyes gleamed with some optimism that made you feel uneasy. Before he could speak you placed a hand on his face and gently kept him still and quiet while you walked around him and kept in your way. You had no patience for that right now. 

Walking to the old factory would take some time, but all you had to do was find your way to a cluster of buildings so you could use your teleportation device, just have to make sure to find somewhere nice and secluded. It didn’t seem like the creatures of this world were very…observant, so you didn’t have too much of a worry of being seen. All things considering if Zim was able to hide out on the planet with that “disguise" of his, you had nothing to worry about.

That is, until you heard the sound of metallic tapping following behind you. Lovely. There was a window beside you, so you glanced over to see the reflection; tapping a few feet behind you was a mechanical device; spider legs made it mobile and you didn’t have to really guess that it was one of the cameras Dib had been working on. You had seen him work on them on your own feed the other night. This will make things a little bit tougher to get to your base, but you weren’t too worried about it.

You kept your pace, not letting it become obvious that you aware of its presence. Just keep walking. Definitely couldn’t let it follow you to the base, the kid would never stop pestering you, you were sure of it, if the surveillance he had already put you under was any indicator. It was cute for now, but anymore than that and it’d start to get annoying real quick.

Sometime passed and the buildings started getting more abundant and closer together, the camera was still following behind with no signs of letting up, alright it was time to act; without a second spared to look, you suddenly turned and went into a store, making sure the door shut behind you so the camera wouldn’t be able to slip in. Where you ducked in looked like a book store, there weren’t too many people in the place, a couple of stragglers staring into the books not really giving you any attention when you came in. That’s fine. You skirted past a few shelves and made your way to a door marked ‘EMERGENCY EXIT', right below it there was a sign clearly stating not to open the door unless there was an emergency. Too bad.

As soon as you opened the door you could hear the alarms go off even before you could slip out and start navigating your way behind the buildings in a small alleyway. You could vaguely hear the few people in the bookstore running out the front entrance screaming. You smiled to yourself, just a little. Causing a small panic was no laughing matter, you knew this, but you couldn’t help it, a little chaos always gave you the warm fuzzies. It’s the Irken blood in you.

With that done with, you kept moving behind a few more buildings, and for a moment you thought you were in the clear. That is, until you heard the sound of what could be a propeller. You hissed out a quiet curse. For a moment you forgot it could fly. Alright then. New plan. You pressed yourself close to the wall of a building, shimmying enough until you could duck behind a dumpster and make a small barricade of old and wet boxes around you. The smell was so bad. 

The camera overhead could be heard as it swept above the area, it paused for a moment and you wondered if it had already caught sight of you before you hid. A moment passed and then it moved farther away and soon enough the noise died down. You gave it a few more seconds before finally breaking out of your cardboard hideout and darting the opposite way of where the camera had gone. This was delving into the annoying territory pretty quickly. A quick whiff of garbage stench still on you confirmed that, yes, this annoying now.

All you wanted right now was to get to your base and get the smell off of you. When you deemed it safe enough you used your PAK legs to navigate around quicker to your destination.  
***

A few more days went by, each one you went about your teaching business as usual and after each school day you would duck and dodge a skittering and flying camera. You could feel Dib staring at you. He started that habit back up, you wouldn’t admit it out loud but he kind of had a very unnerving stare. It was piercing, like he was attempting to dissect you. Gave you the heebie jeebies . But you’ll shove that uneasiness down.

“Alright, It doesn’t matter what level of completeness it’s at, I need all of you to turn in written part of your projects today and after the weekend we’ll begin the presentations. So line up please, and have your papers ready,” You instructed with that sickeningly sweet smile that you’ve definitely overused by now, but you didn’t really care. One by one each child came up with their papers, some only had a single paper, and you took them and stacked them up beside you, eventually you came to the end of the line. There stood Dib, sporting his own fake grin, while holding out a neat stack of papers that were paper clipped together. You gently took them to add to the pile, giving a “Thank you.” He just nodded and walked right back to his seat.

You looked to Zim, who hadn’t turned in anything. “Zim, have you worked on your assignment at all?” He scoffed and gave a flippant hand gesture in dismissal.

“Zim has no time for this…assignment! I have plenty of Earth knowledge in my smelly, normal human brain that there is no use for Zim to participate with the rest of these worm babies!” He crossed his arms and smiled proudly to himself. Ah. You can sort of see why the Tallest had him banished. Very full of himself.

You clicked your tongue. “This assignment was to show me what you could do, since I’m new, so I’ll give you until we start presentations to turn something into me, doesn’t matter how complete, just something. Show me how amazing that vast expanse of knowledge of yours is, blow me away with it. Just give me something” 

He peeked at you, grimacing while thinking, tapping a finger to his chin. “Very well, knowledge slave, if you wish to be amazed by the superior intellect that is Zim's, I will humor you. Be honored.” 

“How very kind of you, I look forward to it.” You held back the urge to roll your eyes as the bell rung and children practically leapt out the window to get away. Humans were so odd.

“Have a safe trip home.” You caught sight of Dib who was just about to leave the classroom, gave a quick wave before dashing away, you could hear him laughing, a very nasally laugh. He definitely wasn’t very good at hiding the fact that he was up to something. Whatever.

You gathered your things and started making your way back to base like you’ve been doing, but this time you didn’t catch any signs of the camera Dib had sent after to follow you. Hm. You weren’t sure if you liked that or not? You doubted that he gave up on whatever he was up to with you, now you wondered if he had something else in store? You’ll check your video feed later to see if you can catch whiff of what it could be. For now you’ll enjoy being able to make it back in a timely manner without any distractions.

As soon as you arrived and were safely back in your underground base (which was still sparse compared to what any Irken would have as the basics) you turned off your disguise and made your way to your ship, needing to pull out the power cells from the back to recharge, luckily the power plant was a short distance away so you could send a wire out to siphon power to the old factory. No one had noticed it, you don’t they ever would.

Just as you about to hook the cells up, a loud clattering noise sounded to the father side of the room behind a few old crates you hadn’t bothered to move. You growled and drew back, PAK legs lifting you up off the ground to give you both leverage to move quickly but also to give you more height to appear more threatening. You took a step towards the crates. 

“Show yourself! Or else I vaporize those boxes you hide behind along with you,” You warned, one of your metal legs lifting up and charging the laser to be fired. Just before you did as you promised a figure rolled out behind the crates and stood up, taking their own defensive stance. Though it would be utterly useless to try to defend against your weapon.

There was silence, drawn out and thick while you looked at the intruder, and when you took stock of who it was you decided it was the best time to use a new human word you quite liked and it matched the way you were feeling right now quite well. 

"Well fuck."

There in all his big headed glory was Dib, he seemed pretty pleased with himself. You wanted to smack yourself. You had definitely lost your touch if this kid was able to follow you here.

Wait a minute. How did he get here?"

“How’d you find this place? I don’t recall seeing your little toys following after me today.”

You sort of figured he wouldn’t tell you, seeing as you were a potential enemy and all, why would he want to tell you his secret of how he caught you. But it seemed he was the gloating type. 

He was absolutely beaming. “Well if you must know!” Oh. Well that was easy. “Earlier when I handed you my paper I had a small tracking device on the paper, so when you grabbed it would then stick to you, and I was able to follow you here!” He spread his arms out wide, smiling a goofy and triumphant smile.

You looked at your hand and hummed, you didn’t see anything but just in case you took your glove off and tossed it onto the floor before aiming the laser at it and giving it a small blast, completely eradicating the glove. You had spares stowed away, thankfully. “Cute, kid, definitely better than those cameras you had in the school and following me around. I was actually starting to feel annoyed.” You put away your PAK legs and instead sat in your desk chair, swiveling to face him. “Though, I had already done something similar to you, so the uniqueness is gone. Still clever.” You smirked and pulled out your small screen, you kept your eyes on him while turning it on and enlarging his side of the feed. You held it out towards him to see.

Dib squinted at it and then moved closer, slowly and full of caution like he was expecting you to attack. When he was able to see it all he could see was the device being shown on the screen continuously. He tilted his head to the side a bit and the footage on camera altered to do the same as well. “You put a camera on me? Where? When?!”

You used your gloved hand to reach out and tap his forehead, grinning widely. “My star student sticker, but don’t worry it’ll fall off in the next day or two considering how often you humans shed your skin. It’s really gross,” You explained while tucking away your toy. 

Dib recoiled and rubbed at his forehead vigorously, glaring daggers at you afterwards. He’d left a red mark in his forehead where he rubbed the skin raw, you’d check later to see if he managed to rub the camera off or not. Right now you were focused on the way he was now pointing a finger at you. “Tell me why you’re here! Another attempt of your “Tallest" to invade earth? Well they already tried once and that failed pretty horribly! So you can tell your leaders t-" You stopped him there, holding a hand out and shaking your head.

“Calm down, kid. I’m not here to destroy the earth or whatever it is you think I’m doing. I’m not part of the armada anymore, whether you believe it or not, I got bigger fish to fry as you humans say.”

You let the words sink in, watched his face contort while he thought about what you said, he looked like he didn’t really believe you. That was fine, really. “Look, you don’t have to trust me, I don’t care if you do, but maybe we can strike ourselves a deal, yeah?” He perked up, interested. Good. “You obviously have access to technology that’s top grade by earth’s standards, I’m guessing that’s because you’re the spawn of that Professor Membrane guy everyone seems to be so impressed by if the earth news is right.”

He grumbled something under his breath but slowly nodded anyways. “Wonderful! As you can see my own base here is…lacking in what I need for my personal mission, and even though I’d have more success with Irken technology in hand, beggars can’t be choosers, you know?” He had leaned back in your chair, shrugging your shoulders while smiling softly. “So, here’s the deal…” Pause for dramatic effect. “I need a few supplies, not too much, but very crucial. I’ll tell you what I need and you’ll get the closest earth equivalent of it for me, and in return I’ll let you in on what I’m doing since you’ll be helping me out with it anyways, and maybe toss in a bit of info on my kind while I’m at it, since you seem pretty obsessed with Irkens, especially Zim anyways.”

Dib began sputtering. "I am not obsessed!" This had you laughing.

“I saw your room, camera, remember? Your walls are plastered with pictures of Zim! I’m guessing you’ve had it out with him for a while.” Before he could start talking and denying what you said you held up your hand again, letting him know you weren’t done. “That’s not the point anyways, not important to me, I can tell you’re on the whole “protecting earth from alien tyranny" schtick and that’s fine, I can admire that drive, but what you’d be helping me with could potentially protect and free the universe. Those touched by the Armada and those planned for future conquest. Which seems like the bigger picture here?”

Long drawn out silence. He was thinking, really thinking. “What…what exactly would I be helping you do?” 

Excellent.

“Pull up a box, since I only have my chair, get comfy. I’ll tell you, but first…” You held out your hand, making sure it was the bare one, makes it look more genuine if you show him you unprotected even just a smidge. A very diplomatic gesture in your mind. “Do we have a deal? You help me, I help you? Plus I promise to not participate in any actions or plans that result in the conquest of earth. We can write a contract about it later if you want, make it more official?”

Dib looked very unsure about all of this, probably never had to deal with a non-chaotic Irken before if he only had Zim as an example for what the entire race was like. You kept your hand out, you’d be patient, this was a pretty big deal if he accepted it and could have some dire consequences if you fail (you’ll mention those later). Sure enough though he reached out his own hand and took yours, giving a light shake. “Deal.”

You grinned and squeezed his hand firmly while shaking it a bit more energetically. “Good choice! Now let me tell you my plan…” You brought your hand back to clasp with your other, leaning forward towards Dib, your grin widening as much as it could. “To overthrow the entire Irken empire.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty dense with dialogue, I hope that isnt too much of an issue. But I figured it sort of helps fleshing out characters when they communicate with one another.
> 
> It's also a bit short, but I'm hoping to make the future chapters lengthier as we get deeper into the story
> 
> No professor Membrane interaction yet, but itll be coming soon, they dont call it a slow burn for nothing after all. Thank you for reading!

“Can I ask something?” Dib raised his hand, making your antennae twitch a bit before you gave a reluctant nod. “When you’re in your disguise you’re taller, how do you do that?”

What kind of question is this?

You groaned and held out a leg, gesturing to your boot. “Look closely kid,” You instructed and grinned a little when he leaned closer (he went and got a crate to sit on like you suggested) and when you deemed he was close enough you reached down and press a small button on the side of your boot, causing the platform to suddenly extend far enough to smack him square in the face. “I made these to give me some height, sure I’m not the smallest Irken out there, but I figured these added a bit more realism to my disguise, plus I like being able to see over counters.” Dib grunted while rubbing her nose, glaring at your shoe as it went back to normal. “Now, no more dumb questions and just listen.”

"Okay..." He looked rather dejected. You had no time to feel bad.

“Good! Now let me see…” You reached down to lift up your sleeve, revealing a gauntlet that you tapped on a few times before a holographic display popped up to show the symbol of the Irken armada, the stupid smiling face that really just made everyone uneasy whenever they saw it. “Considering you have Zim on your planet, I’m going to rightly assume you don’t know much about the Irkens besides the fact that we like to invade and conquer planets, yeah?” You didn’t let him answer. “That is a pretty good chunk of who we are, but there is more to it then that.” 

This time the hologram changed to show a diagram of an Irken. “We are organic lifeforms, clones really. We are grown in large batches and when we are hatched that’s when we get what makes us…us.” You swiped to turn the Irken hologram around to show the PAK. “Here, this is what makes an Irken. The PAK it holds our memories, personality and our life support system, without it we become just lifeless, mindless corpses grown in tubes. Not very useful. But the main part I’m getting to is what the PAK can also do.” You paused, let him absorb what you’re saying, he looked like he was following along well enough.

“The PAK programs us, assigns us to what the Tallest deem us best at. How they do this is a large computer called the control brain.” You changed the diagram to show the large computer. “The control brain programs us. Whether it be an invader to a lowly garbage slave on an abandoned trash planet. It could even program you into nothing…just a living husk essentially. Now everyone thinks the control brain is under the command of the Tallest.” You shut off the hologram and leaned back against the chair, you frowned deeply and looked at your hands, touching each fingertip to their opposite companion. “I don’t think that’s necessarily true…”

You looked up at Dib, giving him a good long look, he seemed pretty into your words and at some point he had pulled out a small notebook, taking notes without even looking at it. You focused back on your hands. “I’m certain the real leader that controls us is the control brain. It’s in the name! They program us, they are the ones that make us who we are so whose to say they cant control what the Tallest do? Their decisions and actions? Irkens operate on almost a hive mind, ones memories and knowledge becomes part of the control brain so anything important can instantly be shared, especially to the Tallest. But who makes the decisions with the knowledge? Is it really the Tallest? They’re just false figureheads while the real masterminds is a stupid, brilliant computer! Probably to make sure if there's any attempts against the empire the sole targets would be the Tallest, no one any wiser to what they should really be going after." 

Your antennae twitched before pressing completely against your head. "The control brain is so cold and cruel. They’re always looking in your thoughts…changing what you think to make you more compliant, less likely to question what it is we actually are doing. Your thoughts just end up sounding like static and cluttered with just…just ideas and feelings that aren’t your own anymore. You don’t know what you feel is yours and even then that’s even filtered out. All you’re allowed to feel is the need to conquer and destroy and the devotion to the Tallest. No matter who you are or what they decide you're meant to do your will is bent without your knowledge. It's so awfully painful."

Dib rose his hand, when you squinted at him he did not let down his hand so you huffed and waved your hand to let him speak. “You said the “control brain” knows what you know, won’t it know you’re telling all of this to me? That you’re trying to take down the empire?”

That was a good question on his part, so you’ll grace him with the answer. “Normally yes. If you’re connected to the brain, to the empire, but I’ve been disconnected. And no, I’m not explaining why.” You had already seen the question brewing in his mind, you really didn’t want to delve into your story with a kid who you barely knew. “Anyways, the one thing the brain is especially good at is finding the defects in the Irken race, usually before they are activated, if they slip past they are quickly taken care of them. Being clones there’ll be a few genetic variants that could be a problem, biggest issue is a faulty PAK; that’s where things get tricky sometimes it’s a simple thing that can be overlooked and the Irken can just be placed in a lower ranking job assignment, but the bigger faults in the programming are meant to be eradicated immediately.”

Just a moment to catch your breath.

“But, even then something can slip through the cracks, unnoticed and chalked up as a simple nuisance instead of a ticking time bomb. The perfect defect. Even though the devotion to the empire and the Tallest is still implanted, free will is solely theirs, no static changing their views and altering actions, complete and utter independence to make decisions.” You smiled and hit your hologram projector again, showing an Irken, but a very specific one that had you holding in a giddy cackle. “The biggest part of my plan is this wonderfully faulted Irken that the Tallest and control brain didn’t think of getting rid of, the key to taking down the true masters of the armada!”

“Zim?” Dib looked at the image of his mortal enemy and grimaced, looking at how you stared at the hologram with a sparkle in your eyes. “How can he help with anything?”

You covered your mouth, trying to hide your smile, but failing. “Because, that florpus hole I’m sure he helped create has also helped create the perfect opportunity for us. For some reason, though I’m sure it was a stupid one, the Tallest and a large chunk of the armada had been sucked into the space anomaly and I can be pretty sure destroyed them in the process. Which, if I’m correct soon there will be a naming ceremony for the new Tallest.” Oh this was your favorite bit. “Since there’s so many of us now strewn across the universe it’s simply the control brain sending out a sweep to gather all the bio information of each Irken to find who is of the greatest height. Now imagine if we take the programming code of the perfectly defective Zim here and isolate what makes him have free will, has him entirely able to be disconnected from the brain’s influence and send it out along with that sweeping ceremony. Potentially “infecting" each PAK with this new code and thus Irken wide blackout. Complete radio silence from the control brain.” 

The chair was pushed away while you hopped out of it, going over to your work desk and pulling out a small blueprint to hold up so Dib could see; it was just a simple and crudely drawn sketch of a computer chip. “I need something like this, just to hold the program. Which I have just decided to call the Free Program. So with this all I have to do is sneak to the main control port and pop this baby in just before the ceremony commences. We’ll also need Zim…alive might I add, I’ve seen those creepy dissection doodles you have up on your wall, and preferably willing to help us but it looks like he’s still the very devoted invader. Even though technically he isn’t.” 

“Wait, wait, wait! What do you mean he isn’t? He’s been trying to take over Earth for your leaders for so long! How can he not be?”

You held up two fingers, wiggling them in his face. “First of all, they aren’t my leaders anymore, remember? Secondly, it’s a sham. Zim is not programmed to be anything but a fast food pushing worker at a greasy restaurant. The invasion of earth was just…a really stupid banishment plan from the Tallest, they were never coming here, I can assure you.”

Dib didn’t seem to like that answer very much. “Does he even realize that?”

“No, he doesn’t, I’m not sure if it’s a programming that just has him believing the Tallest that blindly or just how he is, but he seems to have no doubt that this was a task given to him by the Tallest.” There was another pause, Dib had slid off of his crate and looked at the ground, gently kicking a pebble to the side. 

“That’s kind of sad.”

“It is, but what’s done has been done, I am sorry that their “joke" has more than likely caused you a lot of trouble, but right now I-no we have this chance to do something so whatever happened here and anywhere on other previous planets won’t happen to future ones. It’s going to be messy for sure, but I got the feeling you’re used to that sort of stuff. Besides, I’ll be doing all the tough stuff, I just need you to help me get prepared. If it succeeds you’ll be a hero all across the universe, kid.”

This was probably a lot to plant on a kid all of a sudden. You wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to back out, you wouldn’t force him if he just really didn’t want to be part of this, it could get dangerous if you weren’t careful. But you really hoped he still wanted to keep his end of the bargain, finding someone else willing to help an Irken was slim, plus you weren’t the best at inventing or dealing with anything science-y. You knew the basics any Irken needed to know, but after that you were just lost. Dib would probably be able to help you considering he had access to more than you did at the moment. 

Again with that thinking face, he’s going to get a headache if he kept that up. “I’ll still help you, if it keeps earth safe in the end, but what makes you so sure I won’t use this info against you later on?”

You leaned down (You were just slightly taller than him) and smiled. “Because I know that if I catch a whiff of you trying to backstab me, I’ll be quick to yank that gross looking tongue of yours right out of your noggin and proceed to shove right back down your throat. I prefer to get all of this done without useless violence, but don’t think I’ll go easy on a child. Got it?”

He gulped before nodding, your smile softened considerably and you gently flicked his nose before turning around to your ship and climbing in to fish through your things, calling behind you. “Relax, keep on my good side and I can be a pretty decent Irken.” After a few moments you hopped out with a small bag of snacks in one hand and a all wad of paper in the other, you handed both over to Dib. “Here, something to eat, it’s safe I assure you, and a list of what I need. Each item has its function beside it, so just bring me whatever is closest to it. Preferably by tomorrow, after that we’ll start paying Zim a visit.”

The snacks and paper were pocketed in Dib’s jacket where he just gave another nod, keeping quiet.

“Like I said, relax! This will be fun, an adventure. Kids like adventures, right? You help me out and I’ll make sure you and your planet don’t get caught in any potential danger. Plus maybe I can toss in some extra stuff after all of this is done and over with.” You gave his shoulders a couple of firm pats, not really having to pep talk before. “Go home, get some rest! Come here when you’ve got the stuff.”

Another nod, but this time Dib had a very small smile on his face. Good, he needed to loosen up. He turned around to start leaving, but you called after him.

“Hey, would you mind taking out those cameras while you’re at it? I don’t really like being under surveillance.” After being part of the empire and under the constant watch of the control brain and the Tallest, it didn’t really sit well with you when your privacy was compromised. 

For a moment you thought he’d refuse. It wasn’t part of the deal after all. You could always take them down on your own anyways, since he'd already be aware that you knew about them. But he could also just keep putting more up.

“Sure, as long as you stay on my good side,” He looked at you and grinned before scampering away from your sight. Once he was gone you gave a light snort of a laugh.

He seemed like a good kid. Hopefully you can keep hour promise and keep him out of harm’s way. 

Sadly, you weren’t always the best at keeping promises.


	5. Home Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a longer chapter. Getting the gears ready to turn for the rest of the story line!

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just…get this stuff from Zim? The Irken? With Irken technology for your Irken device?” Dib was sitting on his crate, which he had claimed by bringing a permanent marker and then writing his name in large letters. 

You looked up from the bag you were looking through, squinting at him. “I’ve considered that, but again, if I’m caught then he has memory of me, which the control brain has access to. If you can get into lair without him noticing and get some of this stuff, that would be great, but even if he’s banished defective, I can already tell he has better access to the technology than do, so just keep up with what I told you,” You explained while laying out your various items, you hummed, looking over the paper he had given to you with the function of each item so you know what he gave you, after a moment you looked over at him. Half of what’s on the list isn’t here.”

He rubbed over his knees, shrugging while keeping his eyes on you. “There’s only so much I can take before my dad starts questioning me, he’s pretty okay if I say its because I want to get into “real” science, but some of the stuff on your list seems a little…excessive for just making a chip? I don't really want to keep doing this unless I know about everything you're making.” 

Observant little guy. “Okay, yeah you’re right on that, I’m making a few more things besides the chip. Look I’ll explain more when we get to it, but I need you to just trust me enough to go back and get me everything on the list?” He kept staring at you, tilting his head to you just a smidge to indicate he was waiting to hear something, you groaned . “Please?” 

He smiled and nodded, getting off of his crate and making a turn to the exit before pausing and turning back towards you, now looking a little concerned. “I know you said not to worry about it, but…if you do all you’re planning to do and for some reason, not saying you definitely will, fail...what will happen?” 

“You already know what I’m going to say: don’t worry about it. If it goes bad then it goes bad, but I’ll keep my promise and makes sure it doesn’t fall on you or your planet’s head as a result. I’m pretty sure this will work though, so stop overthinking it, go on, little errand boy.” You watched him begin to leave again but called after him, smirking when he glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t forget to get your presentation ready, you’re going to be the first one up"

“What?! You won’t let me off since I’m helping you take down an entire evil empire? That doesn’t automatically qualify me for an A? At least a pass on presenting? ” 

You shook your head and smiled. "Nope."

He finally left while grumbling about the unfairness of the education system both human and non. You had only know him for a short amount of time, but he definitely was one of the more interesting humans you’ve had to deal with since you made your arrival on earth, but he was certainly also a very odd one. Dib made things more interesting in the very least and also made it easier to get gadgets without having to steal, you’d do it if you needed to, but avoiding it all together was of better interest to you.

Anyways, you looked at what you had, clicking your tongue while picking up a piece of metal and wire. You suppose this will have to do. Again, you hadn’t been the beat at learning science and inventing, but you could do a little bit. This project of yours, you had a basic idea of what you needed and what to do when you got it, but you were sure there were going to be struggles along the way. No matter. You’ve dealt with tougher things.

A small welding tool came out of your PAK while you fished out a pair of goggles and slipped them on, you didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about all of this, you had to focus. You went to work. 

***

Hours had passed, you were still working on a small device that was starting to take shape, it still needed work to be done on it, but it needed the parts Dib had yet to bring you, albeit it probably wouldn’t be the following day until you got them. Just as you were pondering over this a small beeping noise sounded from your PAK’s communicator, considering you gave Dib his own to get in touch with you when he first came in, you assumed that it was him. You picked up the call and grunted while you stripped a wire and started welding it to a power strip.

“Hi, so, uh, we have a teeny problem.” 

That’s not what you wanted to hear. You slipped your goggles off and stowed away your PAK tools away while leaning against your rickety chair. “What is the problem?” 

There was a pause and you could hear some shuffling on the other end of the receiver. “So, I’m sorta, kinda, really grounded right now? Dad won’t let me in the lab, says I’ve been getting to “chaotic" with the alien thing again, I mean I only had a steak out at Zim's once this week! And it was just until three in the morning this time! But he sorta heard me talking about what we’re doing, not that he believes me, but he doesn’t want me using his equipment if it’s not for “real” science, says it could dangerous if I don’t take it seriously.” There was a noise of absolute misery. “I totally do take it seriously! I always have! He just…no one ever sees what’s happening around them like, like a bunch of jerks! I mean come on! We seriously came really close to just being destroyed by some crazy alien and everyone seems to just overlook it! Not to mention now…I find out the whole invasion of earth isn’t even real? Zim was just sent here to get rid of him? There was no Irken army coming to attack us, I’m jus-"

“I’m going to stop you there,” You cut him off, tapping a finger against your chin. “Went off track there, I get it, a lot happened and really, I’ll be more than willing to listen to your crisis that’s happening right now, but we don’t have an infinite amount of time on our hands. You got a lot of stress happening in that small child body of yours.” Okay, this was just a small bump in the road of your plan, you can get over this. But this kid having a panic wasn’t going to help anything along. “Look, is there any chance of you just…breaking into your Dad’s lab or…?”

“When he locks something up it’s pretty impossible to get in, even if you’re his kid. He keeps security tight. Even his lab at home is locked up tight.”

Right. Okay. “Alright then, your parental going to be there tomorrow?”

“Uh, no? He’s been busy at work since the florpus hole nearly tore the planet in half, still a lot of damage out there he’s been helping with repairing.” He sounded a little sad towards the end. 

You twitched an antennae but didn’t question his tone. “Good, I’ll see you tomorrow, bye.” You promptly hung up, not waiting for a reply from him. You did say you’d be willing to break in and steal if the situation called for it, seems like the situation had you on speed dial. Oh well. You put away your project before going into the ship, you decided the rest of the night will be listening to the Irken radio feeds to figure out an exact time for the deciding of the next Tallest. There was definitely going to be a ceremony, more than likely kept quiet, due to the fact that word getting out about the Tallest being killed wouldn’t look good on the whole “undefeatable" vibe. 

Last time a set of Tallest had perished the entire race of Irk could feel it, it was a hollowness that had been gouged out of their very being, as if the Tallest had been apart of them and without them each Irken was left with a piece of themselves just…gone. It was agonizing. But It was a silent call to gather, everyone just knew that there was going to be a selection. Then when Red and Purple came into power the hole was filled and it was if there was no more need to mourn the previous Tallest despite hardly anytime passing at all.

But now. Now you felt nothing. Since you were no longer synced with the control brains you felt no loss to the Tallest, no piece of you had been torn away along with them. You felt whole. You were you. This also posed a problem since you couldn’t exactly get the silent call that alerts to the choosing ceremony, so you’ll have to find a new way, so here you were, sitting cross legged on your captain’s chair while trying to sneakily hack into the radio streams of the Irken communications, more importantly of the information hub. They controlled all the information that was distributed throughout the armada, a very important position for any Irken, even close to invader rank.

You still had so much to do.

***

The sun rose everyday, and like everyday it flooded rooms and roused the occupants from their sleep. Dib was one of these people. He had stayed up late last night, as he did every night, to go over any plans to thwart any plans of Zim's, but it was different last night; he had stayed up late into the night trying to think of ways he could get the equipment you needed for whatever it was you were making for this plan. 

He really didn’t want disappoint you on this. Even if you were an alien like Zim, he didn’t get the same destructive vibe from you. You did say you weren’t apart of the armada anymore, but he also had to consider that were still new, he hardly knew you. How much can you trust someone that was keeping your real teacher frozen in some sort of tube in the basement of an old factory? That had really caught him off guard, but he thought it best to leave it alone, besides he could still somehow feel Ms. Bitters glaring at him with venom so he had confidence she was okay. He would question you about it later. 

He reached for his glasses and slipped them on, blinking slowly while almost tripping out of bed. Downstairs he heard a door shut. His Dad must have just left for work, usually he’d wake him up to make sure he was downstairs for breakfast with Gaz, he must still be a little miffed at him or probably just in a hurry to continue helping get the destruction scattered across their town and earth fixed back up. 

Professor Membrane had a lot of patience when it came to his children, but as they grew older, especially Dib, he started to get more short with them. Never yelled or snapped, but just seemingly more exasperated with the lack of participation in the science field as he wished them to. Most of the pressure had been placed on Dib, expected to follow the exact path of his Father in the scientific field, and though he definitely had a good grasp on science and math and really anything he put his mind to (not really art, he always struggled with that) he just had no real passion like his Dad wanted him to. It hurt sometimes, knowing the disappointment his Father must feel towards him. But this was who he was, he wanted to stay on the path of a Paranormal Investigator.

Dib knew his Dad loved him and even that he was proud of him despite not getting into the same field as him, and Dib loved his father too, even without him believing his theories with the proof right in front if his face (he was in a prison filled with alien criminals for goodness sale!), but he still wishes there was a way to get his Dad to see what he saw. To not be blinded by the limitations of the belief that humans were all that was out in the great big beyond, but rather a small and humble piece of a bigger and beautiful picture! A picture that everyone kept their eyes shut to.

While he lamented on these everyday thoughts, there was a knock downstairs and he didn’t really care to see who it was, he was busy fishing around for his day clothes in a pile in the corner. He really needed to do his laundry. A quick sniff to a shirt had him deeming it clean enough before finally getting dresses. There was another knock. It was a little louder and quickly followed by another and this time the knocks kept up without really stopping.

Dib heard Gaz's bedroom door slam against the wall as she threw it open and then heard her stomping her way down the stairs to the door, the door was swung open and then silence. Dib felt sorry for whoever was at the door.

“DIB!” He jumped when he heard his sister yell out his name, it was never a good thing when she did that, especially with that oh so very annoyed tone she often had when it came to him. It was best to get moving before she called again, it would be for his benefit to not keep her waiting. He quickly made his way down the stairs, which ended up with him tripping down the last to steps and landing on his backside.

Trying to ignore the sting, he stood up and looked to see what Gaz had called him down for, and there you stood, waving slowly while side glancing at Gaz nervously who was looking rather annoyed and suspicious, glaring at him with one eye open.

“This...person says they're here for a "home visit", whatever that means, next time warn us so some of us aren’t interrupted during a very important battle in a very important game.” Dib knew he was probably going to get some sort of punishment later when he least expected it, Gaz was very good at waiting for the right moment to completely wreck him. The thought of the impending doom that was most definitely going to happen caused a shiver to run up his spine as she began walking away, grumbling all the while. “Dad’s not even here…wasting my time…stupid…” He stood stock still until he heard her door shut and you could see the tension leave him.

With that dark cloud out of the room he was slumping against the wall, praying to whatever form of higher being was out there that Gaz would at least make it a quick punishment and nothing too drawn out. She could be very meticulous with her cruelty.

Already getting bored, you walked over to Dib and snapped your fingers in front of his face to catch his attention. “Hey, next time why don’t you try opening the door when I knock, yeah? That girl has some serious venom in her eyes and I’m not feeling keen on getting familiar with someone who I’m sure could actually kill me if given the chance.” You walked past him and into the living room looking around. 

It took Dib a moment to process everything before he moved in front of you, holding his hands out like it was actually going to stop you from moving any further. “Hey! Wait a minute, why are you even in my house in the first place?! We may be working together but I never agreed to this.”

“I told you last night I was going to see you today. Was that not enough warning for you?” You gingerly scooted him to the side so you could walk further into the house.

He stepped in front of you again. “I just thought you meant I’d be coming back to your base! Not my house!” 

You glared down at him and let two of your PAK legs out in order to lift him up from underneath his arms keeping him hoisted up while you made your way into the kitchen and setting him down in a chair. “That’s funny coming from a kid who bugged me and broke into my base without any warning, while I had the decency to at least knock. I don’t have time for this “distrusting the alien” thing either show me where the lab is so I can peacefully get what I need or I can wreck this place like how you’re expecting me to. Which will it be?”

Dib was now crossing his arms while looking to the side, pouting, but after you started to tap your foot impatiently he finally relented and hopped out of his chair, gesturing you to follow him. “This way..” He lead you to a staircase leading down to what you guessed was a basement, at the bottom of the steps was a very sturdy looking door with quite the impressive locks on it and what you assumed was a hand pad. “I told you I was grounded, I’m not so sure you’ll be able to get in there.” 

“I think I can manage, just go keep watch for me until I call you down.” You shooed him away while going down the steps towards the door, you could hear Dib muttering to himself while he stepped away from the stairs, probably to go sulk some more. 

With that out of the way, you set to work on getting this dumb door unlocked, you took off the hand reader to gain access to a colorful array of wires, all jumbled up. Looked easy enough. A smeet could probably figure this out. You looked at all the wires connecting to the scanner and gently tugged on each one before deciding on a nice red color . A pair of scissors came forth from your PAK and you quickly snipped the wire while waiting, if you did this wrong likely any alarm connected to this thing would go off.

A Minute or two passed and the sensor flashed green and a loud metallic ‘ka-chak' noise sounded behind the door. Easy peasy. The next set of locks were even easier, simple lock picking here and there was all you needed to get through the other locks and voila! The door was open. Of course it was, human technology was no match for you, you were part of the armada once, you were specially trained for this.

Just as you were about to call out for Dib and let him know you were in, you had taken a step into the now open lab and was promptly cut off by a blaring siren. What the hell? You were sure you got through every lock just fine! 

Dib came running down the stairs and you couldn’t make out what he was saying to you while the alarms kept on going, you shook your head and pointed up to show that the alarm was making it unable to hear him. He rolled his eyes and walked over to a wall mounted computer screen that was beside the door on the inside of the lab, he typed for a second before a small retina scanner popped out. He took off his glasses and stared into the device and soon after the alarm shut off. 

“You didn’t get the Bio security laser,” He explained, pointing to the bottom of the door where a thin blue laser shot across the entrance way. “It goes off if anyone besides Dad, Gaz or I step in the lab.”

“And you tell me this now?” You hissed at him.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You made it sound like you knew what you were doing! Now you gotta hurry up and get what you have to get because I’m sure Dad got the alarm signal and there’s no telling how long it’ll take him to get here.” This time it was his turn to push you to the side going over to a cabinet and opening it up, he pulled out a cotton bag and brought it over to you. “Here, get what you need and go, I don’t really like helping you steal from my Dad as it is…”

Before he could make his way out of the lab you tugged on his arm, giving him a blank stare. “You’ll have to tell me what parts match up with what I’m looking for, remember? I haven’t studied earth technology enough to be able to do this on my own, that was the whole point of having you get the stuff in the first place. Now quit being so “mopey" and help me find this stuff, I don’t even know where anything is!” 

Dib was starting to get really agitated about all of this, you weren’t really sure why? You made sure to knock and wait to be let in, you let him know that you were taking the items instead of just breaking in without his knowledge and on top of that you’re not rushing him during this moody response of his when you clearly needed to hurry up before the alarm he negated to tell you about brings his Father back while you were still standing in the middle of his lab with an empty bag in hand. You were being pretty reasonable!

You were very close to snapping at him about all of this before he FINALLY began moving and going to various tables and desks to pull out whatever he knew would match up to what you requested a couple days prior. Yes. Good. Progress. He was just being agonizingly slow. He was definitely doing this on purpose to spite you. No. Bad. Delays.

Just as he was about to put what you believed was the final piece of equipment in the bag you were still holding, again he was being so very slow, there was a loud slam of a door opening up stairs and sure enough you heard a booming voice upstairs. “Kids?!” 

Oh you were ready to claw your own eyes out. A PAK leg came out to grab the bag and pull it into your PAK, you ignored the confused look on Dib’s face when you were sure he was trying to figure out how PAKs were able to store away objects larger than itself, you shot him a very bemused glare. He had the decency to look a bit ashamed by how his behavior had now placed you two in a rather unfavorable situation. 

Soon enough you heard heavy footsteps coming towards the basement stairs and you leaned over to nudged Dib. “Just keep quiet and maybe I can get us out of this without too much ruckus,” You whispered to him before guiding him to a table beside you with some sort of glowing invention sitting there, keeping your back to the door while bending over like you’re looking over it with interest making sure Dib was going the same.

The Professor made it to the final step and ducked into the lab eyes immediately focusing on your and Dib. You definitely felt his gaze on you and you had to wonder why this family had the knack to just pierce through someone with just a look, you told Dib this in a hushed voice and you didn’t hear what he said in turn.

"Son, what's happening here? Shouldn't you be grounded?"

Alright. Time to get this over with. You both looked over your shoulders, you could practically see the nervous waves rolling off of Dib as you watched the Professor stand in the door way, one hand by his side the other resting on the doorframe. Just like that you put on your smile, trying to keep it as non-fakey looking as possible. Give a small look of surprise, then place a hand on your chest.

“Oh! Hello, you must be Professor Membrane, Dib's father. Sorry for the intrusion like this, I’m Dib’s substitute teacher while Ms. Bitters is away, I’m here for a home visit,” You kept your voice polite, while gesturing a hand to the small boy child next to you. 

It wasn’t looking like he was buying this just yet, now he was focusing his gaze on Dib. “Home visit? I don’t recall ever being informed about this. Son?”

Dib jumped in pretty quick, deciding it was better to go along with your plan. Great, now he decides to work with you. Where was that ten minutes ago? “I told you about it at dinner a few days ago, but you’ve been really busy with work lately, maybe you just…forgot?” 

There was a moment, a long, drawn out hum of thought before a slow nod. “Perhaps it did slip my mind, but that doesn’t explain why you two are in here?”

Your turn again. You sheepishly laughed and scratched behind your head, dawning a look of embarrassment. “That’s my fault, when I came and you weren’t here I couldn’t help but ask Dib about possibly seeing some of your work if you had any here, I’m a bit of a fan after all. He showed me the door being locked and I did something against my better judgement, I just wanted to look, I was going to put the lock back together after I got a peek, really sorry about all of this.”

The Professor glanced down at the dangling scanner and the various wires hanging out and then back at you. “Huh look at that, impressive for a school teacher! But didn’t account for the bio laser?” 

“Not at all, rather clever, really. I haven’t seen something like that before.” Lie. Bio scanners were basic security in the smallest and less developed planets you’ve been to. But you didn’t think Earth would have something like it, so you had to give some credit to him. 

He chuckled and crossed his arms, the air was starting to lighten up. Okay. Doing great. “Well, if you’re all done here, and since it seems everything is okay, we can go to the kitchen to commence this home visit that escaped me before I have to head back.”

With all that settled everyone made their way out of the lab, you pausing to go ahead and fix the lock with tools leant to you by the Professor (you really couldn’t access the ones from your PAK at the moment) and he made sure to lean over your shoulder while you did so, which of course made you even more uneasy especially when he would hum when you did something and it made you second guess yourself even though you knew what you were doing for the most part. Afterwards you were told to sit at the table while he had some tea prepared. 

This was certainly not the worst way things could go. Dib tugged on your sleeve. “I wouldn’t drink the tea, it’s basically just water and unless Zim’s biology has the defect where water is basically acid to him, I wouldn’t advise it.” 

“Rest assure, unlike Zim, I did research prior to landing here, I know of water and what it does to Irken body chemistry, I picked up just the thing for such an event.” You pulled out a small packet from a pocket and gently tore it open while making sure the Professor was still busy over by the stove, and without further ado you tipped your head back and dumped the contents into your mouth. White powder that tasted of every bitter thing in the known universe filled your mouth and you couldn’t help but make a very twisted expression while you worked it over every surface in your mouth before swallowing down thickly. It left such a weird bubbling feeling in your guts before it finally subsided after a drawn out moment you coughed and slumped slightly giving a thumbs up towards him. 

“What was that? How does that help with anything?” You held a hand up towards him as his Father came back with three cups of tea and set them down in front of each of you, a muttered a thank you and picked up the cup, looking down at the warm liquid you prepared yourself before taking a small sip. Firstly, he didn’t put enough sugar in this at all, but it was still good and secondly, you felt no acidic burning going down your throat. 

You smiled. A special little thing you brought with you to sort of neutralize the effects water had on you. Good thing it had worked, it was the first time you tried it out.

Dib sighed and took a seat at the table just as his dad did, messing with the string of the tea bag hanging out of his own cup. “I’m always glad to discuss the education of my son, but I’m not sure I’ve heard of teachers visiting the home of a student before?”

“It’s a new program the school is trying out, they believe it makes it easier for the parent not having to worry about traveling to the school and also makes it more comfortable for the child to be in an environment they’re used to. It’s all still in the testing phase so it may not take off like we’re hoping. So don’t be too surprised if this ends up not happening again.” You laced your fingers together on the table, you wanted to get this done as soon as possible.

He nodded and somehow taking a sip of his own tea without having to pull down the collar. “So how is my son doing?” 

“Oh I’ve only been a substitute for a little while but looking at past grades of my students I can tell Dib is pretty gifted academically, probably due to the exposure that comes with having a world famous scientist as a father.” 

Membrane nodded in agreement. “My son does indeed have a great mind like me, and I’m very proud of him, though his talents are definitely not being used to their full potential as a… “paranormal investigator”.” 

Glancing over at Dib, you could definitely see him deflate a little bit, you thought back to what he was saying to you before over the communicator. Must be hard being one of the few who’ve seen and believed the truth and when trying to tell everyone else about it then get labeled crazy for it. You can sort of understand the kid. “Would it be okay if Dib stepped out of the room? If that’s fine with him, just wanted to talk one on one with the parent and teacher, yes?” 

Before the Professor could say one way or another Dib had already hopped out of his seat and bolted out of the room, probably already done with the whole conversation even though it just started. “I’m sorry if he causes trouble in class with his…alien talk, we’ve had a few meetings at school because of it, though now it seems the school is more used to it than before. I’m not sure how long you’ve been a substitute at the school so I’m sure it’s still pretty new for you,” He explained while looking down at his cup, sighing softly. 

“No problem really, he’s passionate about what he believes in and that’s pretty admirable. I gather though you’re not approving of it?” 

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing the back of his head thoughtfully. “I let him go on for as long as he did because I thought it was just childish fantasies, it’s good to themselves but he hasn’t let go of these silly beliefs for what is the more beneficial field of science. You can’t help the world chasing ghosts and aliens.”

You guess he meant well? Can’t really tell since you just met the guy. You nodded a couple times, humans seemed complicated with their emotions and how they dealt with them. “I understand that, and believe me I’m no one to talk, but you know just let him be him? This isn’t me being a teacher at this point but personal experience…when you’re met with a heavy expectation from someone you just want to please and seemingly created to grow into what they believe is the correct way of existing and using your talent instead of being who you are without the worry of consequence, it gets kind of, ehhh? Depressing. And dark…you go into a dark place sometimes,” You mumbled the last part, sort of projecting yourself in the conversation more than you really should. This whole conversation shouldn’t even be happening, you just wanted to steal his lab equipment and get out. 

He was sitting there quietly, mulling over your words without saying anything. Did you overstep? Save it. Save the conversation. “Not saying he should completely drop science completely! But maybe, support him more? Heck maybe join him on his little …whatever he does , maybe he’d give your side of science more of a shot if he saw you willing to try out his? Just food for thought.” You shrugged and sipped on your tea, trying not to seem awkward in this situation, it was really hard to. You tugged on your collar. “Well, thank you for the tea! Dib is doing great in class and yeah, it was nice to meet you…I’ll just see myself out. Okay bye!” 

Just like that you got up from the table, he made a move like to stop you but you were kinda done with this. Humans were just too weird for you to handle right now. You had what you needed anyways. 

You touched the doorknob and looked over your shoulder towards the stairs, Dib was sitting on the last step looking at you with a slight frown. “You got what you needed, right?” Slow nod in reply. “Guess that means you really don’t need my help with anything after this?” God damn this kid for looking so pitiful, with his face in his hands looking all dejected like a…kicked space bunny or something equally pitiful.

The thought to just leave was very promising, but again you remembered you had no idea what was in the bag and you could probably figure it out after a bit of time since earth had pretty basic technology as is, you still couldn’t handle that look he was giving you and dammit all you weren’t the same Irken that you used to be.

“Skkkkkkkkk…no of course I need your help, kid, come to the base later, you can help me put these things together" You stuck a thumb out to your PAK before giving a wave and ducking out quick, standing there for a moment before letting out a wheezy breathe. Alright that was done and you were definitely not ever doing these “home visits" again or the “teacher conferences" in fact since this was taken care of you could just probably let that old crone out of the cryo chamber and just be entirely focused on the project you had at hand. Yeah good plan, good plan. 

You gave a small congratulation and went on your way back to the base, feeling a bit more at ease. Just a little bit longer and you could be going on your merry way to taking down the control brains. Smooth sailings from here.

Definitely.

You ignored the clenching in your Squeedillyspooch and made sure to get back quickly. The sooner you got this done, the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, I do have a rough draft of how I want this story to go, just not really sure how to get there with the In betweens. So bare with me, thank you.


	6. Home Visit...Again

You had not thawed out Ms. Bitters, you kept being a sub at the school full of disrespectful and very odd collection of human children. Just for a little longer anyways. 

Besides, it was time to start presentations. 

Before anything you asked Zim if he had brought you any assignments like you had been promised, you were ready to be amazed, you had told him. 

“Of course! You will be amazed and you will give Zim praise for the work I have done.” With that he handed you a single slip of printer paper, you took it from him gingerly, not wanting to deal with another paper planted tracking device if there was one and you examined what had been given.

The top had the words “ABOUT ZIM" written in large letters and just below that were no more words because instead there was a drawing. Not a very good one. It was almost a doodlish figure of Zim standing atop of, what you would assume, planet earth. He was holding an obvious Irken flag and below were two lengthier figures that looked like the Zim doodle but just longer, you assumed those were the Tallest, and there was a speech bubble above each of them with praise for Zim. 

You had to fight a very strong urge to laugh, it made you almost choke. Deep breath. “Zim. This…well this is amazing. I-you…you did great thank you.” He looked pleased with your response, you gave him a gold star sticker, this time without the camera, and excused him back to his desk while putting the art piece in a drawer.

True to your word. You had Dib come up first to present. 

He didn’t look none too pleased.

You vaguely paid attention to his presentation, which was about ancient civilizations shaped by the help of alien influence. Oh boy this kid. Though he wasn’t wrong, some races did enjoy coming to a planet still in early development to meddle a little bit. Like a fun project to pass the time. During his presentation you’d hear a kid or two call him “crazy" or “insane" followed up by snickers throughout the room, turned your head to look at where the sound was coming from and gave a very, very stern glare while putting one finger against your mouth to shush them.

After Dib was done you gave a small clap for him, he seemed pretty pleased with himself when he went back to his desk. After him you let each student that had done the project (about half of them) come up, you didn’t really remember any of them.

You asked Zim if he had one. He said no, history of earth’s past wouldn’t matter anyways when it was conquered. You told him it was fine, his drawing had been enough.

A few students looked displeased and voiced their complaints that Zim got a special pass on the project. They called you unfair. You agreed. “I am unfair, Very terribly so.” They didn’t bring it up again.

The lunch bell rung and you watched all the kids start filing out, Dib stayed behind and walked up to your desk, you looked at him, patiently waiting for him to speak. 

It only took a minute or so but he pulled out a folded piece of paper and placed it on the desk for you. You didn’t pick it up. He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t bug it. It’s from my Dad, he wanted me to give it to you. I haven’t read it, so I don’t know what it’s about other than probably whatever you guys were talking about at the “home visit".” 

You wouldn't take any chances.

You used two pencils to unfold the paper, ignoring the way Dib was looking at you. You were sure you were looking silly, but you really didn’t want to be fooled by paper again. The note was short, to the point.

“He wants to schedule another Parent Teacher conference,” you told Dib who scrunched up his nose and quickly took the paper to look over it himself. 

He looked at you and then the paper. “He doesn’t usually do these willingly, his schedule and all. What did you say to him?” You shrugged, while finding a small pile of sticky notes and one of the pencils you had used to unfold the note and you wrote something down, handing it to Dib. “What’s this?”

“A response, saying yes and when. During lunch tomorrow, wouldn’t it be suspicious if I didn’t reply?” You again ignored his look. “Shoosh, trust me. Also be sure to come by the base after school, tell your Dad you’re staying at a friend’s house or something, gotta tell you the next step and you plan a very important role.” 

“I’m still grounded. Besides why do I have to give him the note? Can’t you just call using the school phone?” 

“Hush, my messenger bird, just drop that off with your Dad then come see me. Now, go fly away, eat some terrible earth food and come back. Go on, fly away birdy.” He looked very offended being called a bird, but he just huffed and trudged out of the room anyways, you smiled a little. 

You stayed in the classroom, not really caring one way or the other if all of your “students" found their way back to class or not. You just needed a moment for yourself. That’s all you ever need is just some time for yourself. Once upon a time you were someone who didn’t quite like being alone, now it’s just suffocating if you’re around more than one living being at a time. 

So just a moment. A moment before all the children came swarming back in and filling the air with their child stink. Human children always seem to carry some sort of scent that was repugnant to your senses, but you were also just not used to it. You had only been on this planet for a short amount of time, and only have a short amount of time you plan on staying still. 

So just a moment. Quiet. Peace. Serene-

The door is opened and quick, precise steps are taken to your desk. You feel yourself regret not thawing out the old teacher. 

“Yes, Zim? Shouldn’t you be at lunch?”

Zim, stood there while staring at you intently, even with the contacts you could imagine his bug eyes were taking in everything he could about you. Why does everyone have to stare? Just look and be done with it. “It has been bothering me since you came to be the new information giver, something about you…troubles Zim.” He had an elbow resting on his other arm while scratched his chin in thought, squinting at you. “Do I know you? Do you know Zim?” 

There was a silent moment, he continued to stare at you but you just blankly returned it, trying not to convey any small hint of panic you had. You were pretty okay at that. Though you weren't sure how he could recognize you? Even in the armada Zim was older than you, not by much but enough to where the both of you were in different training classes. Neither one of you interacted with the other as far as you knew.

“Zim, I just got here, and as far as I know this is the first time I’ve met you. I’d remember a kid with a rare skin condition like yours, I would think. Not to be rude.” You thrummed your fingers over your desk (not really yours, but it was for the moment) broadly glancing at the clock. “You only have about fifteen minutes of lunch left, go spend it freely with your friends.”

Zim scoffs and crosses his arms, looking disgusted. “None of these sniveling earth worms deserves Zim’s companionship. They’re all so loud and…smelly! There’s no need to befriend anyone lower than me.”

You hummed and nodded slowly, he was pretty full of himself. “You can stay in here then, take a break, I can understand that.” You dug around in a drawer that you had filled with human earth snacks, mainly sweet but some savory. You tossed him a few, knowing full well he probably didn’t eat what was in the cafeteria. “Food was gross today, I’m sure, like everyday. Have some of these, just don’t tell the other kids. They seem like hounds when sugar is involved.” 

He looked down at the few colorful bags you had given them and then back at you, you weren’t looking at him, you were looking at a grading roster you had for the presentations. “Very well, Zim will accept your offerings, human.” With that he turned around and made himself comfy at his desk, and soon he was opening one of the bags of treats.

You both kept quiet for remainder of the lunch period. You still felt him gazing at you from time to time. You kept your eyes on your grading, writing a big ol zero on Melvin’s box. His report had been on sheep for whatever reason. 

By the time everyone came running back into the room you were done grading and looked over at Zim who looked rather content with himself after eating his snacks in peace. You guess even he needed a moment for just himself. 

You informed the rest of the class will be an easy day, they can talk freely as long as they weren’t too loud and can even walk around, just be stupid. The same kids who called you unfair earlier said you rocked. You agreed. “Yeah, I’m pretty great when I want to be.” 

At once everyone was chatting, going a little louder than you would have liked but you weren’t going to say anything. Dib had gotten up and made his way up to your desk. You eyed him just like before. 

“Dad said he can’t come during school hours, busy during that time at work, but after school he would be able to come home early.” 

You groaned and looked at him pointedly. “I told you to give it to him when you got home.”

“I just used the school phone, like I told you, it’s easier.” 

You rolled your eyes but nodded finally, rubbing at your temples. You really didn’t want to step back into that house, but you looked at Dib while he watched you. “Fine, that’s fine. I’ll come by after school tomorrow…but I won’t like it.”

“I don’t like it much either, it’s embarrassing. Especially with all things considering…” He looked away, you knew he was referring to the fact you were an “alien" in disguise as a human teacher and possibly he had some mistrust with you still, but you brushed it aside. You wouldn’t take it personally.

“Just go along with it, it’ll be over quick, promise,” You gave him a smile while moving your finger in an ‘X' over your chest, you saw a few of the kids do this when they were giving their word, you weren’t sure how much of a committed vow it was but he seemed happy enough with it. "Just...let him know I agree to the terms? With the school phone."

Dib walked back to his seat, neither of you noticing Zim staring at the both of you suspiciously.

The bell rang. The kids left. You started getting ready to head back to the base. 

This time Dib wanted to come with you, said he already talked to his Dad about going to a friend’s house and mentioned he seemed pretty excited for Dib to have made a friend, so he postponed the grounding for now. He also mentioned that his dad would be expecting you tomorrow at the house. 

“Alright, we’re taking the faster route then,” You muttered while tugging him close to stand in front of you. “Hands to your side, stand straight and hopefully we come out of this with all of your limbs.” You kept your hands on his shoulder, before you clicked the heels of your boots together to start the teleportation beam.

You vaguely heard Dib yell but the next second when you were in the base all you heard from him was retching as he fell forward and proceeded to expel everything that he had for lunch. You groaned while your disguise fell, trying to ignore the smell of vomit while going to grab him a can of soda you picked up from a “gas station" the other day. 

“You’re cleaning that up.” You set the can beside him, he was just dry heaving at this point. “It happens for most, their first time I mean.” 

Eventually he stood up and wiped at his mouth with his sleeve, looking rather disheveled, he took the soda and opened it before chugging down the bubbly contents, just wanting to get the disgusting taste of bile out of his mouth.

“So I finished them up last night,” You gestured to a circular gadget and a cube, as well as a small chip. “The cube is where I have to link Zim's PAK to download the defective data before I can get it on the chip while this little baby right here…” You picked up the circle, holding it out for him to see. “Will be what we use to keep Zim sedated during it all, see here, these two metal needles? They’ll send out an electrical pulse to keep his consciousness from his PAK under wraps while letting his vital functions stay operational, while also keeping the body immobile.” 

“How are you going to get it on him? Zim may be sort of…absent but he’s pretty quick to notice when something is going on that’s against him.”

“I’ll leave that for you to figure out.”

“Wait…WHAT?! Why me? This is your plan!”

You poked him in the forehead, giving him a bored look. “Well I planned on being the one to do it tomorrow, but sadly, I have an appointment after school for a parent conference that I was hoping to have at school, but here we are. Plans change, Dib.”

He was pouting, crossing his arms and looking to the side in a rather miffed manner. So moody. “Don’t start acting all grumpy, you humans get set off too easily, you know Zim best by now, surely this is a simple enough task. All you have to do is put this around his neck and press the red button on the side. Then bring him back here, simple! You can do it while I’m busy talking to your parental.”

Dib glanced over at you, still looking like a grouch before finally slumping and quickly snatching the collar out of your hand. “Fine. You owe me.” 

You shrugged. “Sure, sure. Remember, bring him straight to here and stay with him until I get here, got it?”

“What…what are you going to talk about with my Dad tomorrow?” 

You eyed him, he had moved onto his crate, looking a bit embarrassed now after asking. “I don’t know, what have your teachers talked about in the past? I don’t have much experience with this.”

“About how insane or delusional I am…disrupting the class with talk of aliens and whatever else.” He grumbled and looked down at his hands, balling them into fists. “Even my Dad will say I’m insane…more out of pity and disappointment than spite, but I don’t understand how not even he could see there’s more out there than even the smartest man on earth could comprehend.”

You had taken up tinkering with a small radio you found in a small trash bin behind the electronics store, but you didn’t pay much attention to it, your antennae flicked in his direction, silently letting him know you were listening.

“Gaz sees it all, been to space and even took a selfie with bigfoot once! But she even calls me crazy! I know she just does it to torment me, but it gets kind of overwhelming when you hear it from all angles. For once I just…don’t want to feel so much like an outcast. Especially with my Dad...”

“Being an outcast isn’t so bad.” You had sat down the radio, it had flickered to life for a moment, but only let out static. You looked to Dib. “Since you’re spilling your gross human guts over there, I’ll tell you a little something.” You tilted your head to the side, letting it rest against your hand.

“I’m sure you know the Irken empire is pretty strict about having the perfect soldiers and whatever? They program us and clone us just to make sure we adhere to perfected image we have as a race, even as smeets we are trained to be nothing but loyal and strong beings. But sometimes a little crack can form in the shiny outer exterior. Usually those cracks are taken care of and filled but sometimes they are left and they fester and grow without the knowledge of others and maybe that little crack has enough talent to skirt by unnoticed like other defects. And maybe that crack was even sure themselves they were as perfect as the rest…”

You could speak a lot when the moment arose.

“But a crack is still a crack. Someone is bound to be tripped up by it after all. I’m not the smartest of Irkens, I knew what I needed to but never to the par of the others, Zim would trump me in anything knowledgeable, he seems like an idiot but he’s rather intelligent when given the chance. But I had something else, I was strong. Stronger and quicker than others. I could have been the shortest Irken out there but I could take down the biggest in my training class.” 

Ah, you were a feral little thing when you were younger. Always quick to strike when ordered. Your instructors always favored that.

“I quickly earned favor, eventually it brought me up to the point as personal bodyguard of our previous Tallest. The ones before Red and Purple. I was respected, undefeated and very proud of being an Irken…but…”

You had shifted your position, now looking at your hands. “Certain…events…led it to be very clear that I wasn’t the perfect soldier the armada wanted. I was to be erased. Terminated. Punished for my crime of existing as an imperfect Irken. But it didn’t pan out…the day I was to become nothing I was…saved. And instead banished mercifully where I may live but all memory of me would die. I was disconnected from the Empire.” 

“I spent many, many, many years floating around all alone…it was quiet. But over time I realized that the quiet wasn’t so bad? I thought I’d feel so lonely and abandoned. But it was actually enlightening to be disconnected. I could think for myself, be who I wanted to be. I learned I wasn’t perfect and that it was okay. I discovered. I was lost but I found myself. That’s when I decided that everyone should be given that chance.” 

Now, you were smiling softly, not realizing how your head bowed or the warmth building at the corner of your eyes. Dib couldn’t see, you unknowingly kept it hidden. You almost felt a droplet run down your cheek, you carefully wiped it away and played it off like you were simply scratching your cheek, collecting yourself.

“I decided finally that surely there would be others like me, defects hiding in the empire. Cracks hidden and waiting to be filled. So, why not be the one that let’s them be the cracks they are? What’s wrong with them? I see here, in the sidewalks and the buildings I see cracks and there sometimes there is life growing from them. Bits of vegetation. A crack was able to allow that growth.” You took up the radio again, tinkering with it while talking. “Humans, seem to think cracks are a problem too. You’re a crack, Dib. A defective in human eyes, but that doesn’t mean you have to let that be the end of it. You have life, many of your kind seem to lack this or keep blind to it, so…”

A second later and the radio came to life, a soft melody flowed from it, it warped from time to time but the tune still went on. You stood from your spot and walked over to him, handing him the radio. “You have to show them. I may not be able to convince everyone you’re not entirely insane but I’ll do my best tomorrow with my chat with your parental, maybe soften him up. No promises. This way I owe you nothing.”

Dib was still holding onto the radio, looking down at it then at you before he finally clicked it off. He was deep in thought. You waited. 

“You know, you probably talk more than I do.” He smiled when you squinted at him. “But thanks, though I have questions on everything that led up to your “banishment".” 

Shaking your head, you gingerly took the radio away from him. “I’m not ready to get into all of that. I’ll probably regret going on that tangent later. Hard not to when you’ve been stuck in a ship with your only your thoughts for so long. Even if it was nice, turns out I can even annoy myself.”

“I can understand that.”

“Oh I’m sure! Got a lot going on in that head of yours, you think too much.”

After that there was a few minutes where the both of you kept quiet, not really looking at one another. 

You coughed. 

“Eh, hmm…come here.” You beckoned him, going to your old and definitely-needing-a-tuneup ship, hopping while he soon followed behind.

He was instantly trying to poke his nose into everything, you had to sweat his hands away from pressing the control panel. You pulled out a small orb, setting it down in the middle of the ground and rubbing a circle along the top. It glowed, a gentle green, and began to roll around on it’s own before breaking open in half , each side going further from the other fore stopping and soon the green light spread and formed into a holographic map. 

It showed the current galaxy you were in, but it could expand and search throughout other known ones. A simple traveler’s map. But you could tell by the way Dib’s eyes lit up that he was excited about it. 

“Your Dad thinks you’re staying with a friend, yeah? Might as well do something to pass the time.” He nodded, he looked like he wanted to say something but thought better of it.

You sat on the ground while he stayed standing up, reaching out to touch a small blip on the map it instantly focused in on the planet, Irken symbols flashed across to give information on it. Mars.

“Amazing! Can I see other places with this thing?”

You nodded and reached out, pinching your fingers and then spreading them apart above the image to have it start to pan out. “Just like this, tap it twice to go back to your own galaxy.” You sat back and let him have the reigns.

The rest of the night was him scanning through different galaxies and asking questions about different planets and the inhabitants. You answered as beat as you could you mainly just read the description already written for the planet as you really didn’t like exploring the many planets or have the vast knowledge of them, even those conquered by the armada, the information never took to your PAK’s memory banks.

Dib seemed more than happy to hear about what you could tell him, and you were content enough with the company.

***

He hadn’t slept a wink. 

It didn’t phase him too much, seeing as he had many all-nighters as a paranormal investigator, besides he was perfectly happy spending the night learning about the great unknown that was space.

Luckily you decided to keep class easy that day, just letting everyone read from textbooks and answering questions for the section. It was as the day went on that he started getting a little bit more on edge, the collar in his bag started to feel heavier and he was sure he could do the job, just still a lot of stress for him. Zim didn’t look like it, but he was pretty keen.

You didn’t seem to act like anything was up, you even gave Zim more snacks during lunch period as he decided to skip it and opt to sit back like he did yesterday, he seemed more talkative however when all the kids were gone.

“Why do you seem so “friendly" with the Dib-worm?”

You paid it little attention, shrugging while thumbing through a book you had taken from the school library, it had been about a group of children having adventures and solving mysteries, it wasn’t all that great. “I have to be friendly with all of my students, Zim.”

“The last teacher wasn’t.”

You glanced up at him, looking bored, you were taking a bite out of a chocolate bar. “Her name was Bitters, she was living up to it.” 

This didn’t placate him. “He is not worth kindness, none of you humans are but him especially. He butts his big, stupid head where it doesn’t belong! Zim's business is not meant for his disgusting eyes!”

Oh he whined like a smeet.

He kept on complaining about Dib, countlessly making comments about how dumb and large his head was or how he had no understanding of a superior being he should be bowing to rather than fighting. 

“Okay, I get it, you guys don’t get along, not everyone can mesh together but it isn’t healthy. You both stress out too much, eat your snacks I so graciously shared with you. This is quiet time.”

He opened his mouth to speak but shut it when you shook your head, mean mugging him. Instead he focused on a bag of chocolate covered pretzels, grumbling about how you would get yours when he conquered this dirt ball of a planet. You went back to your book.

Eventually the school day had to come to an end and you were already trying to figure out a way to make this dumb meeting you had with Dib's father as quick as possible. You shot a glance at said kid as the kids filed out of the classroom, he gave you a nod and you returned it silently. You had confidence he could get the task you gave him done.

Sadly you didn’t have much in the one you had.

When you walked out of the school you saw Dib seeming meld into a bush, you didn’t question it, instead you kept walking and grew increasingly unnerved as you came closer to your destination. 

Did you really have to go? You could just not go. Just go back to your base. It’s not like you had some sort of obligation. You were supposed to be getting shit done right now, not play “normal human teacher". You were starting to amp yourself up, just turn the opposite way and get the hell out of there and forget about this stupid teacher conference you had. Just turn here. Turn. Why won’t you turn?

Dib's pitiful face from when he was sitting on the stairs flashed through your mind and you groaned, you had the urge to tug on your antennae to get the stupid pitiful image out of there so you could focus on flaking this stupid home visit. Stupid earth child. Being so wormy and pitiful like a helpless smeet fresh from a tube. He was more vulnerable than a smeet, at least a smeet could actually hold their own and not be all mushy with feelings. 

Damn humans and their feelings.

Fine. You’ll actually do the thing. You’ll hate it, you were very sure of that. 

When you made it to the door you wanted to scratch out your eyes so you had an excuse not to actually do the thing. You didn’t. Instead you rung the door bell.

There was a crashing from somewhere in the house, then garbled yelling, thunderous footsteps and suddenly the door flung open and a pair of arms wrapped themselves around you and drug you inside. 

Nope. Nope. Fuck this. No.

You hissed and tried clawing at whatever had a firm hold of you, there was a flash of orange and then you were being held by a large arm while a smaller one pulled out a small silver spoon out of no where with a very gloppy looking pile of brown…sludge? The spoon was shoved at you, clearly heading for your mouth but you quickly turned away so it mushed against your cheek instead. 

You screeched and kicked at your offender. “Let go! Let go! Letgoletgoletgo!!” You didn’t like being unable to move freely, it made you feel jittery and spikey on the inside. Immobility meant you were powerless. Vulnerable.

“Just take a bite.”

The spoon was still pressed against your cheek but you managed to turn your head enough to look down and see the same little girl from your last visit. Gaz you remember. She wasn’t looking at you, instead focusing on a handheld device. “If you eat it, he’ll let you go. So quit being stupid and take a bite.”

The prickling feeling was getting worse the longer you were being held, you could feel your claws digging into the palm of your hands and you were sure you’d be tearing into your own flesh if you weren’t careful.

The spoon was still there, smearing whatever was in it against your face and you were certain it couldn’t be so bad to just take the bite. You open your mouth hesitantly.

There was a happy cheer and the spoon was shoved in your mouth and then back out, but the contents filled your senses with very bad things.

You wanted to die. 

You were put down while you dry heaved, very close to ripping your tongue out of your head when an awkward cough filled the room.

Professor Membrane was standing in the entrance way between the kitchen and the living room, looking rather perturbed by the goings on. Your captor went over to him, it was the big fish looking thing you had seen on the video feeds before. 

You hated him. You decided.

Gaz could be heard scoffing off to the side and you didn’t care to look as she ascended the stairs. She had been right. But you hated that she was right.

The Professor mumbled something to the other and they nodded, giddily going away somewhere that wasn’t near you. You let yourself relax just a smidge. You were very aware of the stripe of goop still on your cheek.

“Uhm…I apologize for uhm-eh Clembrane? I think that’s what the children call him…he gets excited easy.”

You grumbled and trudged over to him, regretting not turning around when you had the chance, he stepped aside so you could find a spot at the table like before. He followed suit but instead made his way to a set of kitchen drawers, opening one up and finding a dish towel he offered you the cloth.

You snatched it away and began scrubbing at your face. You weren’t too worried about being polite right now. You clutched at the towel when you were done, scowling down at the surface.

“Eh, hmmm you seemed to have missed a spot. May I?” He offered his hand and you wordlessly plopped the fabric there, not really caring all that much on what he wanted to do. 

You quickly tended up when he gingerly had his hand on your chin so he could have your turn to look his way. You didn’t dare look up at him, instead focusing on the buttons of his coat before practically bristling when you felt the cloth touch your cheek again as he rubbed off the rest of the mess. Once done he gave a small hum before turning away and tossing the cloth down into the sink that proceeded to shoot flames from the drain and effectively incinerate the dish towel.

“Would you like tea? Maybe some water

“Not thirsty,” You seethed. 

He rubbed the back of his head, nodding slowly before going to take a seat across from you, clasping his hands in front of him in a professional manner, unlike yours which were practically strangling the other while you tried to calm yourself. You felt riled up. On edge. You didn’t like getting spooked like that.

The Professor could see how much you were displeased, he looked a bit sheepish because of it. “Again, I apologize for that, I was sure I had him preoccupied so he wouldn’t pull a stunt like that,” He sounded sincere, a bit awkward with the whole thing, but sincere.

You felt yourself softening a bit, your scowl was still there but it wasn’t as sharp. You exhaled. Calm yourself. “I should apologize too for being so…standoffish. I can’t imagine anyone would be too keen on being held against their will just to take a bite of whatever vile…icky…putrid monstrosity I was just fed.”

He chuckled at that, it was deep sounding that sent a small little…something through you and you wondered for a moment if your PAK was starting to short circuit. It had been a while since your last maintenance check…you’ll look into it later.

“I understand, we’ve tried having him learn how to actually make pudding with Foodio, but it never seems to work." 

At the mention of this “Foodio", a robotic chef perked up from its corner of the kitchen and came over to the table, making a small whirring sound before popping out two steaming cups from the little oven like door on its front. Smiling happily while setting the cups down for you.

The Professor’s looked to be the same tea he had given the both of you before while yours had a darker looking liquid in it, brown and slightly thicker looking with a few floating white blobs. You picked up the glass and noted how warm it felt and gently took in the scent. Chocolate. Cautiously you took a sip and the scalding liquid burnt your tongue but also had a very warm and wonderful taste. This wasn’t too bad.

You took another sip. The warmth calmed you down further.

“I was thinking about what you mentioned last time you were here, before you had to leave so suddenly.” You hummed, letting him know you were listening while you kept taking drinks from your cup. You wondered if you could ask for another…wait you need to focus. You looked up from your drink, looking at him and seeing him sort of struggle with what he was going to say.

Dib seems to get his overthinking from him.

“I’m…not sure about it. About playing into his para-science the way you suggested to feel more accepted, more open to the real world of science that I could show him. I don’t see how it would work.” 

The way his brow was knitting together while he spoke, you could tell he had tried thinking about it before and probably had a bit of a frustrated spell from it. Such a silly human.

You had to stop yourself from smiling, hiding your mouth behind your cup. “You have to consider how he feels, he probably feels just as passionate about his ghosts and aliens as you do about whatever science stuff you do. It’s not just phase or childish whim for him, he’s devoted. He puts his all into it. If you shoot him down the way I’m guessing everyone else seems to it’ll just drive him away. Away from you. From everyone. He’ll be alone.”

He started rubbing the back of his head again. “I’ve let him do as he pleased for so long, I’m very proud of how driven he is, but both him and his sister have turned away from science. I don’t see what else I could do for him.”

“Support him. That’s all he really wants. He’s a smart kid. But he’s still a kid. A soft and squishy emotionally mushy kid. There’s gotta be something you can think of that you can help him with, something that lets him know you’re supporting his paranormal agenda and gets him open to talk about smart stuff.”

Thinking. Thinking. He perked, snapping his fingers and brightening. How can someone emote so much when most of their face was covered? Mystery.

“There’s the fake alien ship he has in the garage.” He offered.

This caught your attention.

“Ship?”

“Yes, he insists it was from some alien, like his foreign friend, it keeps me from getting to the lawn mower. The grass is getting rather tall.”

“Can I see? For…uh…teaching reasons?” 

“Of course! Seeing as you came out here on my request.” He stood from his seat, going to a back door. You gulped down the rest of your drink while he wasn’t looking at you before following him, he opened the door for you and let you walk out first. 

He led you to a shed, tugging open the door and you noticed right away how jam packed it was. There were bits and bobs of everything strewn about. “He says they’re all from him “stopping" his little foreign friend's attempts at enslaving the earth. Silly child imagination.” He shook his head solemnly.

You barely gave any of the trinkets a glance, you instantly zeroed in on the ship sitting in the middle of the mess. Definitely banged up and needing major repair but there it was. An Irken ship.

“Perfect.” You were grinning.

“Excuse me?”

You blinked and coughed, standing a bit straighter. “This…this uh ship! Which is obviously not alien technology at all! But ehhhh…you could help him with repairs! Make it functioning, rocket science and everything! A step into the right direction? Bonding and whatever human stuff this entails.” 

“Hmmm…” He was rubbing his chin, well he would be if his collar wasn’t so weirdly high, in thought and then nodded slowly. “I suppose, in a way…there would be some potential with this.” 

You clapped your hands together. “Great! You can get started tomorrow! After Dib gets home from school. I’ll even oversee the project!” He gave you an inquisitive look. “As…ah moral support! Make sure it goes well. The bonding. I have a little knowledge in the field anyways, not a lot but I could be helpful,” You offered, giving a very, very convincing smile.

“How kind of you! You take this teacher position very seriously. It’s very admirable.” The professor beamed at you from underneath his coat and you could practically feel the warmth from behind his goggles. He clapped a hand on your shoulder and gave a friendly squeeze. “Tomorrow then! The lab can handle itself with city repairs while I’m here once Dib gets home. 

There goes that something again, this time it started from where he had his hand still on your shoulder and down through the rest of your body. Your Squeedillyspooch gave a jump and you had to untangle your tongue from the literal knot it was tying itself into. “Ah yes, I’m glad it works out now uhm…” You used your hands to carefully move his hand from your shoulder, giving it an awkward but friendly pat before he pulled it away, which had him begin to look sheepish again.

“I guess that should be all for today then! Thank you, this was a rather quick meeting, very efficient.” He let out another chuckle and you weren’t sure if you liked or disliked the sound of it, leaning towards dislike by the way it was followed by an unknown sensation going through your system. 

The both of you headed back inside, he led you to the front door and again opened it for you. Why does he have to be so…courteous? You mumbled a thanks and stepped out turning around to flash your usual smile and a wave before starting off back to your base. You felt his gaze on your back for a while and you really didn’t like how it made you feel very conscious about what you were doing. 

Once finally out of range you bolted, ducking behind houses and other buildings so you could use your PAK legs to get back to the base quicker. You kept your mind focused on the Irken ship tucked away at Dib's house. Very fortuitous. 

By the time you mad it back the sky was starting to turn from orange to pink to a dark blue, you climbed in through a broken window and made your way down into the depths of the old factory, finally able to breathe and unwind from that stressful event you had to deal with.

You walked in on Dib sitting in YOUR chair while glaring at you, he was covered in dirt and seemed to have a large array of scratches scattered over his face. Zim was laying face down on the floor, unmoving and unresponsive. The collar securely around his neck.

Dib spoke before you.

“You owe me for this still. Big time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this is a reader/Professor membrane fic! There's just a lot of bonding with Dib first, the kid needs some validation. I promise there will be romance eventually, it will happen.
> 
> Also it is very hard to try and write dialogue so it sounds in character? I'm not sure I succeed


	7. Family Bonding

The desk had been cleared away while the limp, unconscious body of Zim was laid gingerly on his side, PAK facing towards both you and Dib.

“Can you hand me that box?” You held out your hand while Dib carefully placed your creation in your hand, you said nothing as you set it down beside you on the desk and promptly opened a port on Zim's PAK. With care you pulled out a small cable that unraveled from within his pack and hooked it up to your little cube, which started to glow a light shade of pink.

“Looks to be working! Now we essentially just let the cube copy and download all of Zim's personality files, it may take a while, after that I can filter through what we got and find the code for Zim's defective free will comes from. I’ll have to try and make sure it gets more of a stable form before downloading it on my little chip here, which we shall call chippy, so when I plug in Chippy into the control brains it won’t fry everyone’s PAKs!” You looked at Dib, smiling in a rather pleased manner. So far things were going far better than you would have expected!

Despite these wonderful progressions in the plan, Dib looked less than enthused, he was busy picking a leafy twig out of his hair obviously still acting all glum about getting a little scuffed up from his mission. It was all for the greater good! How could he be upset?

No matter. You focused on the steady glow of the box, while a scanner came out of your own PAK to take a look at Zim’s vitals. He appeared to be stable.

“What did you and Dad talk about?” Dib was keeping his gaze pointed at the floor, still looking like a smeet who had their first battle simulation cut short. You were expecting this question.

You kept monitoring your screen, making sure you had it programmed to alert you when the download was completed. “Told him some sappy stuff; how he should give your side of science a chance or whatever instead of just chalking it up as a waste of talent. I’m not too qualified for the emotional support kind of stuff, but hey! He’s going to be helping you get that Irken ship of yours back up and running.”

He finally looked up at you, mildly surprised. “He is? Even though he thinks it’s fake?”

“Yes, I’ll be there too. Gotta make sure you silly humans don’t damage it too terribly and blow yourselves up! And monitor the whole “bonding” thing too, I guess.” You gave him a side glance. “How did you come across the ship? I wasn’t able to give it a scan seeing as your parental was there. Was it Zim's? Did you steal it? Not going to take mine, are you? I wouldn’t. Kind of junky.”

“I didn’t steal it! Well…n-not really? There was this other Irken that came here…uh Tak? Yeah her, something to do with Zim and I just got the ship in the end?”

You just shrugged it off. “I don’t really care, but it looks pretty banged up. I can already tell it’s going to need a few extra parts…”

Dib gives you a look.

“We won’t take it from your house again! Yeesh. Seeing as our little friend here is immobile I’ll just head into his base and see what I can scrounge up. I’m sure security can’t be too hard to get past.”

Dib pulled out his briefcase, opening it up to pull out his laptop, setting it on the desk. “I could give you the layout, of his base, I mean. I’ve got myself in a few times but Zim doesn’t really change his security system so it should be up to date.”

What a handy little guy he was turning out to be! You pulled a small cord from the base of your PAK letting it form itself so it could fit into the port of the laptop and scanned through his files before coming across what you needed, quickly downloading it and letting the cord zip right back into place. “Alright, looks like it’s pretty standard stuff. And he even has a supply room. I’ll get what I need there and be on my way in time to meet you and repair the ship.”

Actually, there was one other thing you should check on. You opened your PAK and let a slightly larger cord than the last slide out, letting it slink it’s way to Zim's own PAK where it connected itself.

“What are you doing now?”

You hummed and scanned through the knowledge files, only going through what was most recent and also going through any received announcement signals that would have been sent out from the information hub or the Control Brains. “Being disconnected from the Brains has plenty of benefits, but sadly it also means I’m left out of the information loop. Seeing as I need to know when the ceremony for the measuring and choosing of the next Tallest will be for my little scheme I’m taking use of Zim, even though he’s a defect he still receives the same signals as everyone else.”

There. Just as you got done talking you found the file you needed. You disconnected from Zim and uploaded the info onto your small pad, you read over the script and nodded. “Looks like…the ceremony will be taking place in about…an Earth month. They’re really taking their time…usually finding new Tallests takes the most precedence.”

Dib was looking over your shoulder, even though he couldn’t read the language he was still very much interested. “Irkens don’t have someone already lined up?”

“When we’re smeets still learning the basics and being sorted for whatever the empire needs us for some Irkens will be tagged most likely, whether it be on height or skill, mostly height however, and monitored during their time in the academy. The Brains probably already have a list of candidates that will be confirmed during the scan but things can change, someone could somehow grow taller or others could die on missions. I don’t really understand it myself.”

Really, when one just stopped to think about it, an empire being led by the Tallest of the race instead of just who was most qualified was pretty dumb. Red and Purple all but confirmed that.

“I’m sure the last few batches of smeets have proven to be less than satisfactory concerning height, there have been an influx of us smaller rather than those above. The tricky business of cloning, I’m willing to bet. That could be the reason for the delay in the decision of the next Tallest, to make sure there even is someone who qualifies? I’m not too sure.”

Dib was still looking and you were started to not quite enjoy the feeling of it so you reached to gingerly pinch his nose until he finally backed off, cupping his face and glaring g at you. There was no real menace behind it. His glare softened and he gestured to you. “So, in little less than a month you’ll be gone?"

You tilted your head. “Yes? Was that not clear?”

This seemed to make him slump a bit, he looked as though he was on the brink of pouting again but he was keeping it at bay. “Will you keep up the front of being a teacher?”

Hmmm…you didn’t really have to now that you thought about it. “Well…seeing as I have everything that I need now…I don’t believe I do? I’ll have your previous teacher thawed out and ready to begin teaching tomorrow,” You explained, maybe Dib was just wanting to speed everything along so he could get back to his normal sequence of daily life as quickly as possible.

The slight pout was saying otherwise. He nodded despite this and looked curiously at Zim. “What’s going to happen to Zim?”

You hadn’t thought that too much. “I’m not fairly certain. I can leave him here, if you feel safe enough now that you know the armada isn’t actually targeting your planet. Maybe he could come with me? Though he’s too much of a wild card, based on the reports I’ve seen of his…past actions.” You rubbed your chin, looking at the smaller Irken as well. Zim looked rather harmless in this state. “I’ll figure it out before I leave Earth.”

With that a silence fell over the room, like a very heavy and thick blanket. This wasn’t something you were good at, lightening the mood when it had clearly become rather suffocating; being part of the armada didn’t call for the talent and being alone in space for years left you with no real time to develop the social prowess you so clearly lacked.

Dib scuffed his shoe on the ground.

You floundered for something to say. “Eh…you can come here ? When you want to? If you want to? Whenever, to monitor what’s going on and ask questions? About space…you can play with the map again…or just, I don’t know, sit here? I have snacks? Human children seem to like snacks. Do you like snacks?” Your antennae were twitching sporadically, giving off how distressed you were over this awkwardness. “You already know what I am, and seeing as you haven’t tried exposing me to whatever higher ups you have here, you can keep coming around until I leave?”

You were relieved when Dib finally spoke up.

“I like snacks…and I can still help, if you need it. Zim won’t be causing trouble like this and I want to keep an eye on him. T-to make sure he doesn’t somehow screw something up, anyways.”

“Great! Alright. That’s settled.” You huffed and smiled, pleased with how that was handled. “Go home, get some rest, do what you have to and I’ll be there tomorrow to help your parental and you fix the ship.”

The mention of his Dad had Dib seem to become a bit glum again. “He might not show. Dad has a hard time keeping his promises. Unless it has to do something with the greater good of Earth or science. Not really with his kids. With me.”

You can’t deal with this souring atmosphere again. You coughed. “He seemed genuine, really geared up? I’m sure he’ll come. And if he’s late I’ll just knock some sense into him! I was always good at that back in my armada days, I could whip any unruly Irken into shape.” You gave a wink and Dib seemed to lighten up a bit, offering the smallest of smiles. It was something.

After that you both offered your good byes and he left to head back home. You huffed and refocused on the unconscious Irken laying before you. You took a glance at the old radio you had fixed up and scooted it closer to be right beside Zim’s head, turning it on and fiddling with the knob until a soft melody flowed from it.

You liked this. The music.

It was soft and slow, full of emotion you weren’t able to comprehend but still it reverberated deep within you somehow. Almost instinctual. You had listened to many types of music through your travels, each planet holding different tunes and messages; you liked some and also disliked others. You wouldn’t admit that you had a fondness discovering the sounds of each planet.

“Some music during your rest,” You mumbled to him, though you were sure he couldn’t hear you.

You stared down at the Irken for a moment before gently resting a hand atop of his head, sighing softly. This small, exiled Irken had caused great loss and pain to the empire in the past and there was a time even you felt scalding hot hatred towards him for his misdeeds; they had brought you such and terrible loss that still followed you when all you had was your thoughts and the stagnant quietness that always loomed in your travels.

You had hated him.

Despised him.

The mere thought of him would have your blood boiling.

Right now you could possibly end him. You had what you wanted, after all. What’s stopping you from crushing his PAK with your bare hands? You had done it before, to other Irkens . Brought the end to many lives and if you had stayed perfect and kept pretending to be a flawless clone you would have probably ended many more.

So what was keeping you from taking the life of just one more?

You gave his head a gentle pat before lifting it away, letting it fall to your side limply. You couldn’t kill him. You vowed to not take a single life selfishly as you did before for as long as your PAK should let you live.

Killing Zim would just be selfish.

Besides, the anger you felt towards him long since died.

“I guess I should start thawing out that Teacher human…” You gave Zim one last look before going to start the cryo chamber on defrost mode, but once you got there you noticed that there was no longer a human trapped inside the ice, there was a hollowed part that was shaped like Ms. Bitters that was just in there moments ago, but now there was nothing. You looked around nervously and you thought you heard a small hissing noise and a shadow darting away.

You thought it best not to think too much on it.

Humans were so strange.

***

The following day you had almost made your way to the school, but remembered that you decided to give up that part of your disguise. You no longer needed it.

Instead you made your way to Zim’s base (after making sure Zim was staying in his comatose state). Like you said, it was easy to break into and even easier to fry the system that relied on Zim’s bio signature in order to give the house’s computer orders. All you had to do was ask the computer nicely.

_“So nice to actually have someone talk in a less…screechy and demanding tone.”_ It had said before showing you where you could reprogram it so you could be given full access to the rest of the base. You thanked the computer kindly and in turn was given some rather cheerful music to listen to on your way down to the sub level labs.

That’s where you met the rather small robot companion of Zim’s, you saw him on your spying video feeds a little while back and just remembered the way the SIR unit frolicked or frantically tried to get his master’s attention to show him some off the wall cartoon or trick. Girl, is the name he told you, was latched onto your leg while you scanned over the map Dib had on his computer, humming while making your way to a supply room.

There was a lock pad, you needed to input a password.

You looked down at your leg. “Gir, do you know what the password is?” He looked up at you, nodding quickly and then shook his head before once again nodding. “What is it? Can you tell me?”

“It'sa sereeeeet…~” He whispered before giggling, letting go of your leg before trotting off somewhere.

You looked up. “Computer, would you please tell me what the password is?"

There was silence and then a metallic, thoughtful humming. You were going to try asking again but the door unlocked and swung open in front of you._ “There, I’ll just let you in. It was a dumb password anyways. ‘Purple'... who chooses their favorite color as a password in a highly secret Irken lab? Ugh…” _

You shrugged and thanked the computer, stepping into the room carefully. The lights in the room flickered on when you walked under a sensor and you looked around and the various boxes and crates. Most were marked with “Evil stuff, there were a few others and you definitely made sure to stay away from a rather squeaky box marked “radioactive gerbils” and instead went all the way to the back where you found various parts for Irken ships.

You picked through it all and stored anything you deemed necessary into your PAK, you weren’t sure what state of disrepair the ship was in, but you’d rather be safe than sorry by grabbing as much of this junk as possible. Zim wouldn’t mind. Probably.

This was a pretty successful trip! You had done everything way sooner than you thought and weren’t sure what you’d do before it was time to make your way to the Membrane household. Would it be weird to get there early? Look at the ship before and get a clue on what you were dealing with? No one would be home. Well…you hoped that giant pudding monster wouldn’t be there. You shuddered.

You’d have to take your chances. As you were packing up the little robot came back and tugged at your leg, when you looked at him he seemed to be frowning ever so slightly.

“Where’s master?”

Curious little thing this robot was. The antenna on top of his drooped and he looked so crestfallen. “He promised…to watch the fish movie with me…”

Damn. You were definitely softening up.

“Eh…he uhm…went on a secret mission! But he told me to tell you he’d watch the fish movie with you when he got back…and uhm…to give you this.” You had a PAK leg slip out and hold a brown and fuzzy ball in front of you, you grabbed it and offered it to the robot. “It’s called a Jorble. A toy for young Fuzzerlings, it tells stories. Each story is always different and never the same.”

He took the toy and squeezed it, the toy instantly starting up and rolling out of his hand to start rolling in circles while making high pitched warbling sounds. It was telling a story, but only in the Fuzzerling dialect. Sounded like it was a bedtime story. Gir seemed to like it, he sat down and giggled while swaying side to side as the ball rolled around and kept going with it’s tale.

He didn't seem to notice when you said good bye.

  
The journey to household was pretty quick and you only had to scale over the fence to get into the backyard (you didn’t dare try and go inside, just in case Clembrane was there) and instantly made beeline to the shed, instantly you slid it open and move aside everything so you could drag out the ship. Looked to be shut off. 

The exterior looked pretty dinged up, dents and scuffs littered the sip and one of the sharp arm extensions looked to be just barely hanging on by a few wires, the windshield was shattered but you just had to eject it and it would be replaced by the ship itself. Cosmetically the ship was in dire need of repair but that still left the inside a mystery.

You opened a side hatch and peeked inside, a small flashlight came out of your PAK and you looked around. Definitely needed some attention.

“What are you doing?”

The voice startled you, causing you to jolt and hit your head on the edge of the opening. You hissed and leaned back to look who it was.

Gaz.

You weren’t in your disguise.

“Uhhh….”

She was standing there, focused on some handheld device, but even though she wasn’t looking directly at you, you could definitely feel something peering into your very being. You swallowed. “You…you don’t seem too surprised?”

She shrugged. “Saw Zim countless times, plus Tak… doesn’t surprise me that another one is coming around, Dib is always bringing around weirdos. You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing?”

This time she opened one eye and fixed its gaze on you, making you feel a little bit uneasy. You didn’t understand why? You had definitely taken on opponents way more physically threatening than her, but something about the air around her gave off a _‘don’t fuck with me’_ vibe and you definitely intended not to cause this small earth-child too much agitation.

“I’m just checking the ship out before Dib and your parental gets here…I’m helping fix it? Start some father-son bonding while I’m at it? Definitely nothing that would ask for you to keep looking at me like that…”

She clicked her tongue and powered down her device, tucking it in her pocket. “You better not be planning on doing anything evil or whatever, especially if it has anything to do with my Dad. You can do whatever with Dib, maybe mutate him into a giant moth so he could actually live up to the stupid code name of his.” She stomped one foot forward and pointed at you, your antennae shot up and you looked at the finger before at her. “Do anything stupid, anything at all that causes Dib to go on one of his alien-crazed adventures to save the world and results in my day being filled with his stupid, dumb, mindless big headed rants and I will end you.”

You nodded weakly.

“Good.”

Wait.

“Shouldn’t you be in school, or whatever?”

She shrugged once again and started walking to the back door, stopping just before grabbing the handle and turning to look back at you, you stiffened up. “Don’t sit there like a weenie, come on.” You looked over at the ship then back at her, she rose an eyebrow and you thought it best to get up and follow her into the house.

Gaz walked straight into the living room and plopped herself onto the couch, picking up two controllers from the middle cushion, she held it out towards you and you carefully took it, sitting yourself down next to her (making sure to leave a gap to give you more of a reaction time to run away if the situation needed it).

“Get ready.” She unpaused whatever game she had on, not even taking the time to explain what it was.

A few hours passed before the front door open, Dib walking in and instantly noticing you sitting on the couch, no disguise to be seen while growling and frantically clicking buttons on the controller, Gaz was sitting beside you with a blank look.

“You’re really bad at this. Worse than Dib.”

You snarled and looked at her, exasperated. “You didn’t teach me the controls! If this was real hand-to-hand I’d have beaten that shady looking beaver zombie in an instant!”

Gaz made a small 'men's noise, pausing the game as Dib made his way over, eyeing the both of you. “Have you just been playing games with Gaz? Why are you even here?”

“Well, I went to Zim’s for the parte we may need and that was waaaay easier than I thought it was going to be, so I stopped by here to get a feel of what was needed to be done with your ship, then your Sister snuck up on me and here we are!” You stood up and looked at Gaz who had pulled out the same device from earlier, now focused on that.

Dib glanced between you two a moment longer before shaking his head walked over to grab at your wrist and tug you along. “Come on, let’s just get started on the ship.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for your parental? That’s the whole point of this, you two spending time together and all.”

Dib led you back to the backyard before letting go of your wrist, grumbling something while kicking up some dirt. “He probably won’t show, busy at work and all. Always is.” He walked over to the ship while you followed behind him. “After the Florpus Hole and Zim I thought…Dad made it seem like he was gonna be there more…have my back and all, but it just went right back to how it was! Even worse! I get he has to help rebuild all of the destruction Zim almost caused but it feels like he’s tossing himself into his science even more than before!” He growled and kicked the ship, not leaving a dent in the slightest. Irken ships were meant to be very durable, a little child wouldn’t be leaving so much as a scuff mark.

While he was speaking, you had turned your disguise back on just in case the Professor did show up on time, you laid a hand on his shoulder. Dib stiffened at the contact but grew more lazy, he didn’t continue to grumble.

“He’ll show. I’m sure of it. If not he’ll have to answer to me.” A gentle squeeze to his shoulder and you let go, crouching down and taking out all of the supplies you had “borrowed" from Zim’s. “We’ll get started while we wait for him, come on it shouldn’t be too hard.” You sat down on the ground, opening the panel back up from earlier and pulled out your flashlight. Dib didn’t say anything, but he did sit down beside you and also started to take a look. You scooted over so he had enough room.

Hours had passed. The sky was now dark and filled to the brim with stars. Dib had found large lights from the garage that he could set up so you could keep working. He was putting all his attention into fixing the ship, but you could tell he was rather upset.

So were you. You had been called into a home you didn’t want to go into and asked for your advice, you gave it and even made a suggestion that was then agreed upon to be followed, you expected the Professor to take it seriously and show up during the time you agreed on. Very rude.

You fetched a snack from your PAK and offered it to Dib, hoping it'd placate him, he just shook his head and a soft ‘no thank you’re before pulling out torn wires and plopping them in the trash pile.

You heard the door open before he did. You looked over your shoulder as Dib tucked his head back inside to see what else was damaged. The whole day had been just assessing what was broken and needed repair, looked like it was a bigger fix than you thought. Right now, though, you looked at the man who seemed to stand there and watched the two of you working. You squinted at him.

The Professor held his arms out, looking as though he was about to declare his presence. “Son! Substitute of my Son! I am here for Scientific bonding!” Dib bonked his head much like you did earlier, hissing through his teeth while reaching up to rub at the spot (again, just as you did before), shooting a glare at his father. You were standing up before he could say anything. You started breaking into anjog towards the man who was now stepping back at the oncoming sight of you. He was very much confused. “Um! What’s happening he-!” His sentence was cut off as you grabbed the front of his coat, turning around and using the momentum and strength of your Irken body to pick him up and effectively bring him over your shoulder and slamming him down on the ground onto his back.

You could tell you knocked the wind out if him, he stayed sprawled there on the ground not making a sound before finally he sucked in a shuddering breathe and wheezed it back out, he did this a few more times before slowly sitting up, holding the back of his head and turning his attention on you, waiting for an explanation. Dib watched, mouth open and stunned.

“I don’t like when people are late. We agreed on a time. I expect you to show up.” You gave disappointed glare before holding your hand out to him, he looked at it before taking it and letting you hoist him back onto his feet. “Come on, we need the extra pair of hands.” He didn’t say anything, he did nod, and just followed you over.

Dib moved to the side to make room for his Dad, who sat down on his knees beside him, and glanced at you. You gave a small nod and made a gesture for him to go on. You were there to supervise after all, not give them all the answers. Dib seemed nervous, like he wasn’t sure how to approach all of this with his Dad, he did tentatively; he explained the main issues of the ship and what needed replacing while showing him various parts you had brought over. You may need to another trip, the ship’s engine was in dire need of an upgrade.

Of course the Professor did his best to take this all seriously, you could tell he was fighting back the urge to correct his son when he brought up the existence of aliens that had created this technology, he remained focused on getting the machine up and running and even made suggestions on how to make it better. At one point you came behind them and crouched down to make sure they didn’t mess with the wiring too much, but for humans they seemed to be doing a fairly decent job with the Irken tech.

Gaz had even came out to stand beside the three of you while playing on her game, she’d occasionally pause to peer at what progress was being made before going back to her own version of entertainment.

A whole family get together. Plus the little Irken that was you.

Another hour or two passed before most of the small repairs were done, the wiring had been replaced throughout the ship, the main issue was dealing with the power core which had been all but drained and destroyed, you were sure you could find a replacement at Zim’s base. It was agreed that it was best to leave it as it was for now, Dib fetched a tarp to put over the ship so it could be kept out and he looked rather pleased with himself.

The Professor looked rather content as well. “Alright, I believe it’s time for everyone to file in and get ready for dinner! Hurry on now, I’m sure Foodio will have something splendid ready.” He had the children go on their way into the house, Dib took a moment to turn around and give you two thumbs up while looking much happier than he had previously, you returned the gesture giving a small smile of your own.

You were about to say your good-byes and be on your merry way but a gloved hand rested on your shoulder before you could take a step. You shuddered for just a second before looking up at him curiously.

“I…wanted to say thank you for looking after my Son.” Aw geez, human mushy feelings were practically radiating off of him. You shrugged, offering a nervous smile. “No, really, I don’t know how to thank you enough. He needs someone to look out for him and…I haven’t been doing that great of a job. I was even late today, I get so caught up at the labs, it’s no excuse I’m aware but bettering mankind with Science has always been a big part of my life.”

Okay. You could see where Dib got his emotions from. You sighed and turned to face him, resulting in him lifting his hand off of your shoulder and letting it rest back at his side. “He’s a good kid, definitely an odd ball, and probably the best company I’ve had in a while as sad as that may sound, but I can’t look out for him. Not saying that it isn’t I wouldn’t want to do, but my stay is only temporary. I bounce from…school to school after all and I have a new assignment soon, so I won’t be able to keep him company. Besides, it’s not me he wants to hang around.” You reached forward and poked him in the chest. “It’s you.”

There was some sort of emotion being conveyed by the scientist but you couldn’t tell with how little you could actually see, but you were sure there was some sort of remorse or sadness playing behind those goggles.

“I want to, I want to be around my children more. To be there for Dib, Gaz has always seemed more dependent than Dib so I tend to not worry…since they have each other. But if Dib had picked up science they way I wanted him to we could work side by side and I wouldn’t have to be away.”

“No, no, no. That’s not how it works,” You chided him, forming an ‘X' across your chest with your arms. “You’ll make him feel guilty, almost like the absence of his only parental figure is because he made the wrong decision. Which he didn’t. He’s a kid, you’re the adult here with these two little kid-things, you have to figure out what’s more important. You have your entire life to watch your science experiments and it’ll never be gone. Science is always there, but…” You pointed your thumb over your shoulder to the house. “Those kids wont. Human lives are so short and by the time you realize that they’ll have gone ahead of you and you’ll probably be left feeling all mopey and sad while you tinker with your science creations. They can wait around for you for only so long.”

He went quiet and you wanted to bite your tongue off. You probably said something offensive and it wasn’t like you even had experience with what you were talking about! You were giving your two sense without even thinking and you were preparing yourself for him to tell you to mind your business. Which you really should.

“You are very well versed in this sort of matters it seems.”

You flushed and looked down. "I traveled around a lot, you pick up a lot when you go place to place and see how others interact." You mumbled softly before adding: “I uh…I also didn’t have much of a choice when in my upbringing. Had to be what someone else thought was better for me. Turned out I didn’t live up to the expectations in the end…too much pressure for a non perfect.”

“Now, I can say that scientifically no human is perfect, though I suppose I could be the execption…” You gave a bemused look, he chuckled. “I’m kidding, even I have made mistakes, biggest ones seem to be how I treat my own kids, I’ll make amends somehow.”

Just as you were about to reply the kitchen window opened up and Dib poked his head out. “Dad! Hurry, Clembrane will cover everything in pudding if you don’t come in soon!”

Oh Irk. That vile thing. Your digestive organs seemed to quiver at the mere mention of that “pudding" and it looked like the Professor was experiencing the same discomfort. He yelled back that he would be coming in just a moment before looking back down at you. “Would you like to join us? For dinner? A small thank you for what you’ve helped Dib with?”

You shook your head, feeling a prickling sensation go up you spine. It was all too domestic. “No, no thank you! Very kind, but I uh…have a lot of dietary restrictions and I don’t want to trouble you with that!”

“Oh no worries, Foodio is programmed to cater to any food allergen or restrictions, it wouldn’t be trouble at all.” You were sure he was smiling at you now, you could feel the warmth going across your face.

“I’m not hungry! Yeah, I had a big lunch before I got here! But uh maybe another time? I’ll just go ahead and show myself out.” You laughed in a strained manner while starting to side step towards the fence.

Membrane watched you, he raised a brow. “Uh…then you could come in to use the front door in the very least?”

“Nope this is good! Ah I guess I’ll be back tomorrow with the parts we need so show up this time! Or I’ll do more than flip you!” You started scurrying up the fence, cursing yourself inwardly while your foot got caught just right so you tumbled down and smacked your face against the ground with a loud yelp. Well fuck. You jumped up and yelled a farewell over your shoulder and began jogging your way to a quiet place so you could quickly make your way back to the base.

You had barely spent any time on this planet and it was already getting to you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can say I'll be trying to start building up the romantic tension next few chapters if all goes well! 
> 
> Thank you for everyone who leaves kudos, comments and bookmarks my work! You warm my heart during this chilly autumn season


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